Changing Perceptions
by izwan
Summary: An extended scene taken from Heart of the Swarm mission two. Chronicling on what truly happened to Raynor from the time he was captured until he ended up on Moros. Now continued until the end of HotS. Hints of love triangle maybe. Disclaimer: I don't own SC and anything associated with it.
1. Chapter 1

**Shuttle platform, Umojan Research Station...**

"Jim!" cried Kerrigan as the bridge between her and Raynor fell, destroyed by the Dominion Archangel. Both of them could only helplessly watched as bit and pieces of the bridge continued its journey down into the crevice deep below.

The Dominion was right behind him and on the other side was Kerrigan. She managed to cross over towards the shuttle platform just as the Archangel launched its barrage of missiles and in the process brought down several Umojan siege tanks and the bridge as well. Between her and his dropship was the Archangel.

"Damn it!" he shouted. "Sarah! I'll find another way to you!"

"Well you better hurry or I'll kill this thing without you." She then turned around and began to engage the Archangel. Despite the dire situation they were in right now, she was confident that Raynor will find a way to her. He'll come. Jim never knows when to quit, she thought to herself.

Raynor watched as he saw Kerrigan began her brawl with the huge mechanical monster. He was quite surprised that despite her return to into human form, not once she lost her edge. In fact, she seemed a lot stronger than she was before her infestation. Feeling a bit better, he turned around and began to run, desperately searching for an alternative way to the shuttle platform. He knew he had to be quick. With flood of Dominion marines and feral Zerg now converging within the research station, meeting any of them would be an extremely bad idea. And despite Kerrigan seems to be able to handle the Archangel by herself, Raynor still can't help but felt worried.

He ran and ran. Turning right and left along the corridor searching for that elusive way back towards the shuttle platform. By now, the power line into the research station had been cut off. Raynor had to rely solely on the emergency lights that lit the pathways and his suit search lamp. That would be the least of his problems though. Now that the power had failed, there was no way he could find a working electronic terminal where he could refer to the map of the station. He was going his way blindly with his heavy assault rifle firmly gripped in his hands, ready to bring down anything that charged to him from the darkest corners of the corridors. From far away, he heard gunshots and more worryingly, the eerily screeching sound that had always signaled the incoming of the Zerg hordes. From time to time, explosions rocked the station as dust from the ceiling floated down covering his armor suit.

Minutes later, he reached a four way corridor intersection. There was no one around. All the electronic terminals were dead and only a few of the emergency lightings were working. Raynor looked towards each of the pathway that would lead him away from that location. Without any maps for him to refer to and with him being unfamiliar with lay out of the station himself, Raynor couldn't decide whether he was getting nearer or further away from Kerrigan. The only saving grace would be that he hadn't met any of the enemy yet. However, he knew that the longer he stayed there, the bigger the chances that he will be found.

"Oh man, I really could use a tour guide right now," he mumbled. Time was running short for him. Desperately thinking of how to get out of the mess he was in, he began ponder on the next step he should take. Moments later, an idea flew into his head. Quickly he turned on his communicator and began to contact Kerrigan.

"Sarah! Can you hear me? I could use some help. Sarah?"

No response. All he got were statics and lots of them. He tried again, "Sarah! Can you hear me? Look I'm lost right now. I need your help." Again nothing.

Raynor sighed. Things had just gone from bad to worse. He was in the middle of nowhere and he was totally cut off from her. He intended to bank on her psionic ability to guide him through the station's labyrinth but since he couldn't establish a contact with her, that idea had to be put on hold. Feeling desperate, he tried to contact Kerrigan one last time, "Sarah? Look if you got this message please find a way to call me back, okay?"

He waited for a few moments before deciding that Kerrigan might had problem answering his call. She might still fighting with that Archangel at that very moment, he mused to himself. Not wanting to disturb her concentration to what she was doing, Raynor turned down his communicator and putting it into sleep mode just in case Kerrigan tried to contact him. Saddling up his gun, Raynor decided to try his luck.

"Well, I've always like going to the right side of things," he muttered. Without thinking further, he then turned into the right hand corridor and began to pace through it, hoping that it will lead him closer to the shuttle platform. He hoped that at some point he could finally reestablished communication with Kerrigan. However, all his hopes were dashed as after fifteen minutes of running, he had reached a dead end. In front of him stood a huge blast door. With that power outage the station was now experiencing, there was no way he could make that door opened. Cursing, he began to back track his steps towards the intersection. However, just as he began to run, a really huge explosion occurred nearby causing the ceiling and the walls in front of him crumbled. Raynor managed to get out way just in time but at this point, he was trapped. In front of him stood rubbles of concrete and steel while behind him, a blast door. It took a few minutes before the dust began to settle and Raynor finally regain some vision of the aftermath. He was lucky that his visor had protected him from choking down the dust but still it didn't save him from the trap.

He went forward and began to inspect the rubbles. It had completely blocked his way out of there and there's no way he could moved that many rubbles. Some of it was simply too large and he couldn't risk more fallen debris. Getting more desperate, he tried to contact Kerrigan, "Sarah?"

"Jim?" came in the reply though a bit crackle due to interferences and perhaps as Raynor had now finally suspected, he was in fact moving away from her. Shaking off that dreaded feeling, he said, "Sarah, you're okay back there?"

"I've neutralized the Archangel but you better hurry up. I think there's another wave is incoming," replied Kerrigan.

Feeling a bit relieved, Raynor spoke into his communicator, "Sarah, I'm cut off. I can't get to your location. Take my ship and go!"

Kerrigan was dumbfounded when she heard this. Feeling a bit angry and disappointed at the same time, she shouted into the communicator, "We had just found each other, Jim! I'm not leaving you behind!"

Suddenly a familiar voice broke into their communicator. It was Valerian, "Raynor? Kerrigan? I'm now on the Hyperion. We're setting course for the rendezvous point! What's your status?"

Raynor cut in just as Kerrigan reached for her communicator, "Kerrigan is taking my dropship! I need extraction!"

"I understand and I'm sending a team for you," replied Valerian.

"Do not screw this up, Valerian!" warned Kerrigan. She had enough betrayal to last her ten lifetimes and she clearly not in the mood for more. Especially not when the life of her beloved was at stake.

Valerian, sensing the dangerous tone within Kerrigan's voice replied," Kerrigan, I'll see you at the rendezvous and… I'm sorry I didn't listen to you sooner."

"It's too late for apologies, Valerian!" replied Kerrigan, still seething from having to leave Raynor behind. Her confidence in him was beginning to diminish. Her inner emotion was practically screaming against leaving Raynor to his fate but then she knew she had no choice. It would be a matter of time before Mengsk finds them both. She knew she had to make herself disappear before that happened. She hated it, but now she had to trust Valerian to keep his words. Feeling despair, she spoke to Raynor through the communicator, "Alright Jim, I'll take your ship but if you get yourself killed, you're in huge trouble!"

Raynor chuckled when he heard that. "Heh, yes'm. Noted." He then began to inspect his weapon, cleaning it a bit from the fallen dust as he awaits for further communication from Valerian. Moments later, Valerian contacted him.

"Jim! Dominion reinforcements are arriving! The Hyperion is taking heavy fire and my team can't reach you!"

Raynor's heart sank as he heard that. That wasn't the news he was hoping for. But still a commander needed to do what a good commander was supposed to do. He knew that the longer Hyperion stayed at the location it was at right now, it would soon be destroyed. He knew that Mengsk wouldn't care less whether his son was still alive or not just as long as it gets him what he wanted. He then replied, "Roger that! Get the Hyperion off to the rendezvous point! I'll find another way off world!"

"I'll see you there! Valerian out."

Raynor looked at both blockages in front of him. Both represented quite a challenge for him. On one side, a huge rubble that would need his utmost strength in digging his way out. Not to mention the danger that more debris could fall right on top of him while digging. On the other side, a huge blast door. With power's gone, plus the only thing he got with him was the rifle, there would be no way for him to have that door opened unless he could try to rewire the power cables and routed the auxiliary power, if he find one, towards the door mechanism. At this point, he started to wish that Tychus was here with him. Deciding that opening the door would be the key to get out of the mess he was in, he began to make his way towards the control panel that resided at the left hand side of the door.

However, just as he reached that panel, the door suddenly exploded. Raynor was thrown backward by the shockwave from that explosion. He wasn't injured though thanks to his armor but his ear was ringing fiercely due to the loud noise. He was disorientated for a few minutes before he heard a familiar voice.

"Well,well. Isn't it the infamous Jim Raynor."

That voice. He knew that voice. But until now he couldn't make out whom the owner was. His head was still spinning.

"Still dizzy aren't you, Jim? Don't recognize who I am? I'll let you in a little secret. You've helped me with my Tosh problem, remember?"

Raynor's eye widen when he heard this. "Nova?!"

Nova smiled. "Good job, Jim. Looks like you still remember me. I really wish we could meet in a much more friendlier way but I got a job to do."

"After I had helped you and nearly getting killed for it?" Raynor shot back. Disappointment began to creep in. He knew a bit about Nova. He knew that like Kerrigan, Nova was Dominion's most skilled assassins. But he had hoped that he could trust her. He had hoped that she will remember the things they had done together.

Nova, sensing what Raynor was thinking, spoke, "Look Jim. I knew and I still remember all the help that you gave me, but I have my orders. A girl just gotta do what a girl gotta do."

Raynor scoffed. " And you take it much more easily than I thought you would be. Trust and confidence never mean anything to you, Nova. It's not for nothing when I said you reminded me of someone I used to know. You preferred to trust that snake than someone had fight along with you!"

At this point, Nova shouted, "Emperor Mengsk is not a snake! He had done more for humanity than anyone else did! Even you!"

"That was what he told you, Nova! All of it were simply his claim with no proof to back them up. Have you saw that broadcast? Have you ever tried to at least listen to the other side for once?" spit out Raynor.

"Why would I want to do that?" sneered Nova.

"Because by then it will enable you to think which is right and which is wrong. Then maybe perhaps you would think twice before becoming a betrayer!"

Nova's eyes reduced to a slit when she heard this. "What did you call me?"

"You're a betrayer, Nova. And you know it!" replied Raynor, now standing up. He knew what's coming for him. From the looks of it, he had finally managed to tick Nova off.

Slowly Nova raised her rifle and pointed it towards Raynor's forehead. Her anger was clearly bubbling inside her.

Softly but with no small amount of poison laced in her words, she said, "Goodbye, Jim."

A shot was heard but Raynor managed to dodge just in time. Nova prepared to take a second shot but somehow her effort was cut short by a screeching sound she heard behind her. She turned around only to see a group of hydralisk making their way towards her. She was stunted at that point of time and her mind suddenly went blank. One of the hydralisk suddenly began to shot multiple poisonous darts at her. However, just as those dart reached her, she was pushed aside by Raynor causing those hydralisk darts to instead embedded inside Raynor's armor. Pushing away the intense pain he began to feel and with Nova who was now protected behind him, he began to gun down every hydralisk that were charging towards him.

Nova saw it. She saw it all. She simply looked towards Raynor in front of her as he continued to shoot towards the hordes of hydralisk. The hydralisk couldn't get nearer but they still put a fight. More and more of their venomous darts were embedded within Raynor's armor.

"Jim!"

"Nova! If you still have any of those grenades, I could use one right now!"

Nova quickly reach out for her utility belt and gave one of the grenade to Raynor. He took it and after pulling out the safety pin, threw it towards the incoming hydralisks. A loud explosion shook the place as Raynor turned around and hug Nova, shielding her from the blast. Minutes later he released her and began to look towards the location where the hydralisks once were. All of them were dead. He looked back at Nova who was now staring at him.

"It's done. You're safe now, Nova."

And right at that moment, Raynor toppled backward. The hydralisk's poison had began to take its toll on him. Nova quickly rushed to his side. Cradling his head, she simply looked at him. The green eyes met the brown ones. She knew that her hero wouldn't last long.

"Jim."

Coughing, blood seeping out of the corners of his mouth, Raynor gazed upon Nova and smiled. "Well, I guess you did manage to do what you're supposed to do."

Nova nearly cried. Trying to hold off her tears, she began to search her utility belt. She found a syringe of anti-venom and quickly injected it into Raynor's blood stream. Once that done, again she cradled Raynor's head.

"I'm not letting you go, Jim."

But by this time, Raynor had already lost his consciousness. His eyes had close. And Nova for the first time within a few years of her life, wept for the man she began to have feelings for.

_**To be continued..**_

**A/n: Just as an information, this fic was written based on what I saw in HoTS mission two and guess what, it's not all my figment of imagination. That hydralisk attack I think did really happen inside the game. If you guys look carefully at the monitor at the left hand side of Raynor, there was clearly a warning of incoming hydralisks. Beside, if Nova really had shot Raynor, why would he still be alive? Anyway please read and review and I'll see you soon.**


	2. Chapter 2

Indebted to your friends is one thing. Indebted to your enemy is another. And the worst of all, indebted to the very person you attempted to kill. Sick, shamed and utter confusion were the feelings that she had right now.

The journey back to the battle cruiser was uneventful. The Dominion military managed to disable every guns and missiles turret that littered the research complex which means that aside from occasional nasty turbulences that plague Phaeton's atmosphere, the flight back was pretty much safe.

Her team found her minutes after Raynor saved her from the hydralisks attack. She was at that time crying over an unconscious Raynor. The resoc marines of course didn't question on what she was doing at that time and the only other Ghost operative that followed her was killed by Kerrigan.

As ordered by Nova, Raynor was put on a stretcher and quickly carried over towards a shuttle landed on a platform not far from the hydralisks attack location. Having taken Raynor out of his suit, the Dominion medic quickly secured him onto the med bed onboard the shuttle and began to administer various drug and antidotes designed to slowdown the effect of the hydralisk's venom. All his wounds were also being patched. It took quite a while before they managed to stabilize him. And not for a moment Nova left his side.

Capture Kerrigan. Kill Raynor. That was her mission. A mission given to her personally by the emperor himself. That mission ended up not the way she wanted. Kerrigan escaped and it was Raynor who ended up being captured. And at this point, he was totally incapacitated. All because of his desire to protect her.

This wasn't her first time. She was used to rescue and being rescued. But this time it was different. Her rescuer was none other than the man she was attempting to murder. She was supposed to be dead. She froze. Something that had never happened to her before. But she was snatched from the jaws of death by the man that was now laying unconscious in front of her and had to pay the price for it. She knew that Raynor would need further treatment. That anti venom and various drug administered by the medic could only slow down the poison. He will need to be treated in a full fledge medical facility like the one on board White Star.

Nova sat beside Raynor for quite a long time. She purposely ignored the curious looks given by the medics and the marines. For all they know, Nova had never shown any affection towards anyone else. She was only known as a very effective killing machine, codenamed X41822N. She was rumored to give up her identity as a human and had contended instead in becoming a military operative through and through. But now they something else. Something that they had never expected to see. The beautiful femme fatal, Agent X41822N was now showing her affection in bucket loads and was holding the hand of someone she was supposed to kill.

Nova continued to gaze towards Raynor's face. He was still unconscious. Her eyes were tracing through every line on his face. A lot of stories could be told by those lines and Nova had a hunch that most of them weren't happy ones. He seems to be in a deep sleep. He looked peaceful but she knew better than that. Raynor was in fact battling for his own life.

The event of the hydralisk attack kept playing inside her mind. She was more than prepared to kill him at that time. One shot was all she needed to put him out of his misery. But something happened. For the first time ever since she graduated from the academy, she missed. The bullet did graced Raynor's suit however, but it did nothing to harm him. The hydralisk attack happened when she was trying to shoot Raynor the second time. She knew by then that she won't missed. But the screeching sound distracted her. And once again something that had never happened before happened. She froze. If not Raynor's quick intervention, those hydralisk spikes would have tore apart her body. Those armor piercing bullet were instead went straight into Raynor's suit. Nova could feel the pain and agony that was ravaging inside Raynor though on the outside, he showed none of it. He proceeded to attack those creatures while at the same time shielding her both from the hydralisk spikes and the explosion that ensued afterwards.

He saved her. He protected her. And he did all that without a slightest thought. It was as if he had forgotten what she had been trying to do to him. It was as if she was instead truly mattered to him. There was absolutely no reason for him to do that and yet he done it. It was clear to her by then that there was indeed more than meet the eye when it comes to Raynor. He had done what a supposedly blood thirsty terrorist hell bent to create unending uncertainty and chaos shouldn't do.

Nova still remembered his expression the moment Raynor first time saw her. She expected hatred and deep resentment coming from him. Instead what she saw was sadness, guilt and longing. He was looking at her as if she was someone he hadn't seen for a really long time and had missed so much. She was of course didn't thought of it much at that time. She had more important things to do than delving into other people's feeling. And she was no psychiatrist. But now after everything that had happened, her curiosity began to surface. She needed to know him. She needed to understand him. And Raynor continued to be alive would allow her to do just that.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the shuttle pilot announcement.

"Ladies and gentlemen we're approaching the White Star. Please remain seated. White Star, this is shuttle ST-321. We're starting our approach. Deactivate the deflector shield."

"Shuttle ST-321, the deflector shield will be deactivated momentarily. You are to dock at docking bay 17A. Please follow your present course," came in the reply.

"Acknowledged."

Nova turned her eyes towards the pilot cockpit. She could clearly saw the gigantic Gorgon class battle cruiser approaching fast through the shuttle windshield. Worries and a slight panic began to surface inside her. Until that point, the emperor had yet known the status of her mission. He had yet known that Raynor was still alive. Emperor Mengsk had not asked her to seek audience with him. Not yet anyway but she knew that moment will come and she had to be well prepared for it.

The shuttle slowly entered docking bay 17A which incidentally was the main docking bay of the White Star. Carefully the pilot landed the shuttle onto its designated landing platform and moments later passengers of shuttle ST-321 began to disembark. Nova and the medics were the last to disembark.

Flurry of activities could clearly be seen within the huge docking bay. Here and there shuttles landed and took off. Marines and ship personnel alike hurriedly went through with their own business. Nova was looking around before one of the ship officers came up to her.

"Agent Nova?"

"Maybe. I wasn't sure who I am right now," answered Nova sarcastically.

Unruffled, the officer responded, "I was simply being polite. Emperor Mengsk requested your presences at the bridge. Immediately."

Nova turned to look at Raynor, now safely strapped onto the floating med stretcher. The medics were still waiting for her instructions. Turning back towards the officer, she said, "I need to settle some things first. I will seek him immediately once I'm done."

"I am to escort you to the bridge right away, agent."

"No you're not!" reply Nova hotly. "You're going back and you're going to tell him that he needs to wait until I'm done with what I'm supposed to do!"

"The emperor won't be pleased with that kind of attitude, Agent Nova!"

"It won't matter. Whether I came to him now or went to him later, he still won't be pleased with what he's going to hear," finished Nova. She then immediately signaled the medic to bring Raynor towards the ship medical facility. She followed them all the way and stayed while Raynor was transferred onto one of the bed inside the ward. She watched as the doctors began their diagnosis on him. It was at that point when she realized something. She began to look around and saw marines, both warded and visitors alike were looking towards her, more specifically towards Raynor. Then, she heard them.

"Hey! It's Raynor! That son of a bitch! He killed…"

"I heard he was with the Queen of Blades…"

"I'll bet you fifty credits that I can put a bullet between his eyes.."

"I'm gonna killed him!"

"I hope the doctors would poison him instead of treating him. He deserved it…"

"Why saved him? He's a murderer. A terrorist! He should…"

Anger began to bubble inside her. All of the sudden she psionically lashed out towards the offenders causing beds to tumble and bottles of medicine to broke into pieces. Those who managed to escape her wrath flee from the ward. Softly but with no lesser amount of anger buried within her voice, she spoke, "Nobody touches Jim Raynor. He is to remain as he is. And you!" she turned towards the doctors and the nurses whom were now gawking at her. "Make sure that he continued to be alive and well. If something bad happened to him, there would be hell to pay!"

Nova took a moment to look at Raynor before she stepped out of the ward and made her way to the bridge. The news of what happened in the medical ward was spreading like a wild fire throughout the ship. On her way to the bridge, virtually everyone quickly stepped out of her way the moment they saw her. After ten minute of walking and a ride on the security elevator, she was finally inside the White Star bridge. She was greeted by stares from the battle cruiser bridge officers the moment she entered. And in front of her was the emperor.

He was standing with his back facing her. He ignored her for the moment, preferring to instead place his concentration towards the holographic table in front of him.

"You want to see me, sir?" asked Nova. No response. "Sir?" Nova tried once again. And again Mengsk showed no sign of acknowledging her. Nova then decided to stay silent.

It wasn't until many minutes later before Mengsk finally spoke with his back still facing her, "One dead Ghost. The Sarah Kerrigan escaped and Jim Raynor is still alive. You even brought him here into my ship. Care to explain yourself, Agent Nova?"

Nova knew this was coming. She then respectfully replied, "Change of plans, sir."

Mengsk upon hearing her answer turned to face her. "Change of plans? Under who's authority was that, Agent Nova?"

"Mine, sir."

"On what ground?"

"The Queen was more powerful than we thought, sir. She was the one who killed agent X32770F. She got help in planning her escape."

"Sarah Kerrigan had already been deinfested. She's now no more powerful than you do. In fact, I have to say that she was much weaker. And the fact that she murdered billions of people won't win her many friends, Agent Nova. The only one who would have helped her is the man that you have brought into my ship!"

"With all due respect sir, this is war. Things won't be going the way we wanted them to be. I had to improvise."

"I don't care how much you have improvised," replied Mengsk. "Just as long as I got the result that I wanted. But in this case, it is clear that you have failed! I don't tolerate failures well enough, Agent Nova! And I really didn't expect any failures from you! That research station had been completely surrounded. Their defenses were taken down within minutes after we begin the attack. I've even provided some of my best men to go with you. There shouldn't be any failure!"

"My apologies, Your Highness. I'll promise you it won't happen again."

Mengsk simply stared at the young Ghost operative who was now staring at her own feet. She was the best that he got. While he acknowledged that even the best would fail at some point, he can't help but felt really disappointed. Especially when he was really close in achieving what he had always sought. After moments of silent, he asked, "Where's your loyalty lies, Agent Nova?"

"To the Dominion, sir."

"I am glad to hear that. And perhaps this would be a good time to prove and strengthen that sense of loyalty, don't you think?"

"Sir?" asked Nova.

"Jim Raynor. He's still alive, isn't he?"

"Yes sir, but barely."

Mengsk nodded. He then took out his personal handgun and threw it at Nova. Nova caught it and looked at him questioningly.

"You are going to shoot Jim Raynor. You are going to kill him in front of me," He said as Nova looked at him in horror.

_**To be continued…**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**White Star Bridge…**_

Nova looked incredulously at Mengsk. She simply can't believe what she was hearing.

"Killed him, sir?"

"You had problem with that, agent?" asked Mengsk.

"No, sir."

"Then why hesitate? I'm simply asking you to do the job you're already good at. I'm giving you something I had never given to anyone else who had failed me. The second chance. You were supposed to eliminate him down there but you didn't. Now is your chance to complete half of the job," stated Mengsk a matter-factly.

"I-, wouldn't it be better if he continue to be alive?"

"Why would I want him to be alive?"

"We could use him as a bargaining chip."

"Bargaining chip?"

"Yes. Use him to seek out the Queen of Blades. You said it yourself that they both had history between them. She will come for him. We could force her to fight on our terms and strike her at the right moment," suggest Nova.

Mengsk considered her for a moment. "Intriguing, Agent X41822N but perhaps you forget that Sarah Kerrigan is a Zerg. She will use anyone to her own benefits. Betrayal and manipulation had always been the way of her life. Haven't you heard about what she did during the Brood War? Have you forgotten that she nearly destroyed everything that we had worked so hard for?"

"No sir. I remembered it all," answered Nova.

"Then you probably realized that Jim Raynor is no longer of any use to her. She won't risk her neck to come and saved him. Hell, she could now be on her way back to the Zerg right this time. We could have ended it all if it wasn't for your failure!"

"But sir, I did look through into his mind when I confronted him. All his thought only went to her and-."

"Did you saw any indications that whatever he felt for Kerrigan was being reciprocated?" asked Mengsk while cutting off Nova sentences.

"I-, no sir."

"Then you'll agree with me that he had been manipulated all this while, that his feeling for that woman was faked? It was artificially constructed and nothing more than that?"

"I-, yes sir."

"Then you'll agree that he was no longer of any use to Kerrigan and also to us? That keeping him alive was the stupidest idea you had ever had?"

Nova felt numb. It took her quite a couple of minute to finally nod in agreement.

That was it. The emperor's final ultimatum. Whatever the argument she could come up with, the result would still be the same. Jim Raynor would still have to die. She was hoping that using the argument that Kerrigan would come to save Raynor would make the emperor see the benefit of keeping Raynor alive. Even then, deep inside Nova had to agree with what the emperor had said. Even she herself wondered whether the Queen of Blades would come and saved her supposed lover. All that Nova ever heard about Sarah Kerrigan were betrayals and manipulations. It was always the bad things. Never the good things. Despite all that, she still wanted him to be alive. If it were true that Raynor was indeed been manipulated all this while, then perhaps she could saved him from Kerrigan. If Raynor continued to be alive.

Nova kept silent as she and Mengsk walked towards the medical ward where Raynor was held. And following them from behind were three Ghost operatives. Nova very much knew on why the emperor brought them along. She was monitored not just physically but also mentally. Anything that hatched within her heads will be known. The emperor had also made the point that should she erected her own mental barrier, that would be more than enough of the reason to snuff her life out.

Her feet were getting heavier and heavier as the medical ward entrance loomed ahead. Even holding the handgun given to her by Mengsk had become a problem for she knew that the gun and her own hand will be the end of someone who had saved her life.

All those within the ward gave Mengsk an honorary salute as he entered the premises. One of the doctors went up to him.

"Greetings, Your Highness. It's an honor to have you here in person."

"You're in charge of this facility?" asked Mengsk.

"That would be me. Yes."

"How is James Raynor doing?"

The doctor looked back towards Raynor's bed and reply, "He's doing fine, sir. He's giving favorable response towards all the medication we gave him. He should be able to breathe on his own but we plug in the oxygen breather anyway just to make things easier for him."

Mengsk nodded. "Very well. Here's what I want you to do. Take out everything life assisting equipment you plugged in to him and stop giving him medication."

"But Your Highness he was just beginning to stabilize. There's still a bit of the Zerg venom resided within his body. We do that and the chance for him to continue to be alive would be diminished," protest the doctor.

"All the more reason to put him out of his misery. And don't tell me you now have sympathy to this terrorist."

"I'm not. He's just my patient and I simply doing my job."

"And I'm the emperor who had the authority to tell you what you job will be. I don't think I need to make myself clearer!" reply Mengsk sternly.

"Forgive me, Your Highness."

The doctor then gave Mengsk a polite bow and proceeded to dismantle all the medical equipment that was plugged to Raynor. "It's done," he said once the last wire had been pulled from Raynor's skin.

Mengsk nodded. He then turned towards Nova who all the while was looking at Raynor. "It's your turn now, agent."

Nova looked towards Mengsk and then back to Raynor. Her heartbeat raced as she contemplated on the act she was about to commit. The act that she knew would haunt her for the rest of her life.

"Well, agent?" Mengsk was clearly impatient.

Nova slowly stepped up towards the motionless body in front of her. She then slowly raised the handgun and pointed it towards Raynor's forehead. Her hand shook a little as the two side of her began to battle between themselves. A part of hers said that it was her job to accomplish what had been told and Raynor was merely the casualty of the war. Another part vehemently stated that the man that now lay in front of her was responsible for her safe return even though he had no strong reason to do that. He had laid his life for her even though she didn't really deserve it. Killing him will be the cruelest act she had committed among those she had committed before.

It was at this point that Raynor's body began to stir. He opened his eyes slowly and the first thing he saw was Nova, now pointing a gun at him. His eyes continued to wander around and saw Mengsk standing not far behind Nova.

Mengsk was triumphant. He admitted within himself that this was far better than what he expected. Raynor would now die and his face would be the last he would see. Revenge for what Raynor had put him through would be sweet. "Waking up aren't we, mister Raynor? I've told you that it would be foolish of you to cross me. Don't you worry, old friend. You'll be put to a permanent sleep soon enough."

Jim Raynor said nothing as he continued to look at Mengsk. Despite the anger now rose within him, he was indeed too weak to do anything else. He knew that he was now in Mengsk's mercy, if he could call it that.

Raynor's eyes then slowly fell upon Nova. He simply looked at her. He saw tears began to flow down her cheek as she continued to point that gun towards him. By now, he began to understand.

"It's good to see you alive, darlin'," he said to Nova. "Just do what he told you to do. Maybe then you will understand why I choose to fight him."

Raynor then closed his eyes as several gunshots were then heard. He waited for the pain but none of it came. He was waiting for the warm blood of his to seep out of his bullet wound but also none of it came. He was waiting for light at the end of the tunnel to come and claim him, that Liddy and his son Johnny would be waiting for him on the other side but he saw none of them.

Feeling curious, he opened up his eyes. He saw Nova was still holding the handgun in her hand, smoke coming out of the gun's barrel. He saw Mengsk was looking so furious at Nova. He then looked to the other side and saw the bed beside him was full of holes.

"What is the meaning of this?" shouted Mengsk. "Did you just intentionally missed him?"

"Yes. I intentionally missed him," replied Nova. She turned and looked directly towards Mengsk. "Jim Raynor had laid his life for me. He was the one that had ensured my safe return. He nearly died defending me from the Zerg when he had no reason to. I couldn't kill him and I don't want to."

"That one good deed won't offset all the crimes he had committed, agent! Have you considered that he might be manipulating you? Have it ever crossed your mind that he might be using you?" asked Mengsk as his anger rose through the roof.

"It wasn't him who had been using me and manipulating me, sir. He had every reason to leave me to the Zerg. He could have escaped and leave me behind. But he didn't. He got wounded and nearly died while I come out without a scratch," stated Nova.

"Then you should have left him to rot! You shouldn't bring him into my ship! Jim Raynor is the enemy of the Dominion and to the humanity as a whole and he always will be no matter what good deeds he had done!"

"His enemy is only you, sir. And I won't let him die," Nova stated firmly.

Mengsk simply stared unbelievably at Nova. First Kerrigan. And now Nova. Mengsk began to wonder what kind of power Raynor had that he managed to held sway over many psionics. He saw how quickly Kerrigan fell to him. Mengsk heard how the Protoss held high regards for Raynor. He had also heard on how the Queen of Blades would hold her forces back whenever she knew Raynor was around. Even nearing the end of Brood War, Kerrigan simply left Raynor and his men alone while the UED, the Protoss and to some extent his own were decimated by the Zerg. And now Nova vehemently defended Raynor from him. He knew that he must do something.

"This would constitute as treason, Agent X41822N. You know what the penalty is."

"I am well aware of that sir but I'm not prepared to sell out the very person that mattered to me. I'm prepared to accept any punishment you deemed fit just as long as Jim continues to live."

Now she called him Jim, Mengsk mused. Mengsk finally understood. Nova now had feeling for his enemy and she was prepared to die for him. But even then, Mengsk knew he can't afford to lose the only Ghost operative powerful enough to face the Queen of Blades. He had to construct a new strategy and he was lucky as one suddenly popped out of his mind. Taking extra caution not to allow whatever he was thinking could be read by Nova, he finally said, "Very well, agent. If Jim Raynor truly mattered to you, I will let him live. For now until a trial can be put against him. But he will not be allowed to stay inside the medical ward. This medical facility can only be used by those who had fought for the Dominion. Not for those who fought against it. Am I clear on that?"

Nova sighed. She knew that it was so much to bargain with the emperor but at the very least, Raynor was still alive. She knew that Raynor won't stand a chance against Mengsk's court but what choice do she had. As she continued to gaze at Raynor who was also looking at her, she softly replied, "Crystal clear, sir."

"Good." Mengsk then ordered the marines to push Raynor's bed out of the ward towards the ship holding cells.

Just as the bed moved past Nova, Raynor said to her, "You shouldn't have done it, Nova."

Nova simply kept quiet as she watched Raynor being pushed out of the ward.

"Agent?" called Mengsk.

"Sir?"

"From this moment forth, you will be temporary suspended from your service to the Dominion military. You are to surrender every weapon and equipment that you possessed. The holding cell will be your quarters and you will not be let out of it until we reach Korhal. Understood?" asked Mengsk.

Nova nodded. "Yes, sir."

Mengsk then signaled one the Ghost operatives that accompanied him to strip Nova out of every weapon that she had with her at that time. "Take her to the brig," he said once the stripping was done.

Mengsk simply watch as Nova was escorted out of the medical ward. He smiled. It won't matter to him that Nova had fell in love with Raynor. Once they reach Korhal, Nova will have her memory wiped off and she won't remember anything except that Raynor was the true enemy of the Dominion. There won't be any trial for that rebel leader. He would still died by the hands of a woman who had once loved him.

_**To be continued..**_

**A/n: How's that? To be honest with you guys this chapter was a bit rushed but I'm still satisfied with it. The argument Nova had with Mengsk was supposed to be included in the last chapter but I decided it would give much greater impact if she was shown to have her hands bound all the time. Anyway I hope you like it. Please read and review and I'll see you soon. Don't worry I won't bite. In fact I love to have plenty of discussions with you guys and gals.**


	4. Chapter 4

Huge explosion shook the ground surrounding the research station as the Dominion armada began its journey back to Korhal. Mengsk had made it clear that everything deemed valuable was to be confiscated and the station itself was to be destroyed. An envoy was sent to the Umojan Protectorate to expressed Mengsk displeasure of the Umoja involvement within something the Dominion considered as its own internal affairs.

Nova was sitting alone when she felt the huge battleship shifted its weight as it began to pull away from Phaeton gravity pull. For quite a few minutes she was sitting on the single bed, staring towards the adjacent cell where Jim Raynor was lying on his bed.

Suddenly, an announcement echoed throughout ship public address system, "White Star will be entering warp in five minutes. All personnel are to remain at their station."

Nova looked back at Raynor. Even in a huge ship, entering warp speed wasn't a pleasant experience. It was compulsory for each ship passenger to strap themselves into a chair while the process began. But no such thing was provided inside all the cells within the brig. As a psionic, Nova was more than able to handle the sudden acceleration occurred whenever the warp drive was being initiated. It wasn't her that she worried about though. It was Raynor. He had no psionic and at that time was too weak to do anything. Nova slowly stood up and walked towards the cell bars that separated her cell with Raynor's.

"Jim?"

Raynor opened up his eyes and looked towards Nova.

"Darlin'?"

Trying as hard to suppress the flutter inside her heart, Nova said," Listen Jim, they're going to initiate the warp drive within a few minutes and you're not strap into anything. You won't be able to handle the sudden burst of acceleration in this condition. But I can help."

"How?"

"You'll see. Just don't move too much, alright?"

Raynor simply nodded.

"Warp will be entered in ten, nine, eight…"

Upon hearing that announcement, Nova put out her hand towards Raynor. Raynor suddenly felt his body was pinned down hard onto his bed. Nova herself psionically nailed her feet towards the floor.

"…four, three, two, one."

Suddenly they both felt a G-force a thousand times more powerful than what a normal airplane passenger felt during take-off. It lasted not more than a few seconds though as the ship velocity began to stabilize.

Nova retracted her hand as Raynor felt the pressure began to ease. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Grateful. Thanks. Never felt that kind of sensation before though. Something's wrong with this ship?"

"No Jim. Ship's lock ups usually weren't equipped with protection during warp jump. It's some sort of temporary punishment for anyone unfortunate enough to be its occupant."

"Figures," replied Raynor as he shifted uneasily on his bed. He still felt weak and some part of his body felt unusually warm.

Nova saw what he was thinking said, "There's still traces of the Zerg poison within your blood stream. That's why you feel that way."

"You don't think the poison will strengthen, do you? Like a Zerg virus?"

"I don't know, Jim. The doctors were unable to complete the treatment on you. I don't have tell you why."

"Yeah, you don't have to. Maybe Mengsk think it would be more satisfying for him if I died slowly and painfully," replied Raynor bitterly.

"I don't think you're gonna die, Jim."

"Yeah and I don't think that someday I'm gonna be Mengsk's prisoner," said Raynor. "But still, dying may not be such a bad thing, Nova. It would still come to us no matter how hard we try to avoid it. I'm not worried."

"You said that as if you're hoping for it," said Nova.

Raynor sighed. "I'm not but I'm not afraid of it either. If come the time when I leave this world, I will gladly do so. My family is already waiting for me."

"Your family?"

"My parents. My wife. My son. They're all waiting for me."

"Sarah Kerrigan?"

Raynor went silence when Nova mentioned that name. His brow crooked as he turned his gaze towards the ceiling. Deep inside he began to wonder where she would be at that point of time. He hoped that she would seek the Raiders and stayed with them until his matter could be sorted out, if it could be sorted out. But then, how would his Raiders react the moment they saw her? Can they accept her? Will they? He knew that his men won't touch her under his instruction but right now, he wasn't in command and Horner himself wasn't that fond of Kerrigan. He began to feel worried. If his Raiders rejected her, there was no telling where she might be heading to.

"Not the Zerg. Please don't go to the Zerg, Sarah," he muttered to himself.

"Why do you think she would return to them?" asked Nova.

Raynor turned his gaze back to Nova. He considered her for a moment. Seeing that Nova was genuinely curious, he replied, "Because she got no one else but me. Aside from the Zerg that is. Humanity abandoned her. The Protoss would surely want to kill her."

"Don't you think she deserved all of that? For everything she had committed?"

"That wasn't her. That was the Queen of Blades."

"Isn't the Queen and Kerrigan was the same person?"

"The Queen of Blades was not her. The person whom you saw at the research station is Sarah Kerrigan, not the Queen of Blades. The Queen died when we assaulted Char."

"Don't you think that she was just playing with your mind, that all she wanted was your trust? Don't you think there's a chance that she will betray you someday once she got what she wanted?"asked Nova.

Exasperated, Raynor replied, "Look Nova, I knew her since we both a part of the rebel group lead by Mengsk. Sarah was already a powerful Ghost and probably deadliest assassin I had ever knew. And you know what's odd? That she didn't like anything that she was doing. All that she wanted was a normal life, away from murdering and killing. Her power was already formidable even before the infestation and yet she told me once that she would gladly trade it all in return for a quiet and peaceful life."

"That's not what I've been told."

"You have been lied to, Nova. Not your mistake I know but it should prove to you that power ain't everything for everyone. With great powers come great responsibilities and Sarah saw it as something that had been destroying her life. She had been used throughout her whole years and she was forced to be a Ghost. You might not believe some of the shit her trainer forced her to do when she was still a kid but those things really happened. But you know what, despite the fact that humanity had failed her from time to time, she still saw that they were still worth saving. That's why I believe that she could come back. That's why I know that the woman with Zerg dreadlock really is Sarah Kerrigan."

"Why wouldn't she want to be a Ghost? If saving humanity her greatest priority, she should be proud and strive to be one. That's what we do," stated Nova.

Raynor looked into Nova green orbs deeply. He knew it by now. Despite some of the similarities she and Kerrigan possessed, one of them chose to be what the other despised. "Nova, are sure that's what you did all this while? Saving humanity?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"Then can you run down in details any of the mission that you were chosen to do? Any at all?"

Nova went silent. The truth was, she can't really remember much. She was always memory wiped upon the completion of her missions. While the exposure to the terrazine gas on Altara did bring back some of her old memories and her old personalities, she wasn't able to remember the rest of all the missions she went through. The only things that clear were the post mission briefings that her superiors would gave every time her succeeded her mission. It was always the same though. Praises and how she had saved the humanities as a whole. The changes in her after that mission hadn't gone unnoticed however. Her superiors suggested deeper level of memory wipe could be administered but the emperor shot it down, fearing that it would greatly affected Nova's abilities in accomplishing missions given to her the very next time. Besides, she had proven time and time again to be ruthlessly loyal to the Dominion cause.

"Those were classified, Jim. I'm not allowed to tell you." Truthfully told, but not much satisfying.

"Yes. That plus all those memory wipes you went through prevents you from remembering anything. You are what you chose to be. That was my father's words before he died and I will hold on to it until the day I die. I am what I choose to be and you are too. You may not realize the aftermath of what you had done every time you completed your mission but I'm sure you still could weigh on what eventually will happen every time a mission is given to you. You could still choose from right and wrong. You could still decide. You're a human, Nova. Not a machine."

Nova looked down in discomfort. Raynor was showing empathy instead of anger to her. "Why did you choose to save me, Jim?" she asked moments later.

"From the first time I saw you when you contacted me about Tosh, I know you are different. Just like Sarah, I thought that you are really more than what you had become. And the things that happen in the medical ward did proved that I'm right. You're worth saving, Nova."

"Even when it could take away your life?"

Raynor nodded. "Not for a moment I regretted what I have done, even if it means that my life will end by it."

* * *

The ship night cycle had begun. All the bright illuminations within the holding cells were turned off, leaving only various night lights turned on. Raynor had long gone into slumber, fatigued probably from the effect of the medication and traces of the Zerg poison his body had to fight with. Inside the adjacent cell, Nova sat on her bed with her back against the wall. Her eyes continued to gaze at the sleeping form in front of her. She can't sleep.

All her thoughts went back to their conversation earlier on. There were much she had learn and yet she felt there was more she need to know about the enigmatic rebel commander.

"**You're worth saving, Nova."**

"**Even when it could take away your life?"**

"**Not for a moment I regretted what I have done, even if it means that my life will end by it."**

Those sentences kept on replaying inside her mind. Simple and yet it touched her deeply into her soul. And the fact that she was a psionic would mean that she could feel the emotion that flowed with every word Raynor had spoken. Nova was truly overwhelmed at that time. She nearly spilled out her tears the moment Raynor finish uttering those words. It's been a long time since the last time anyone really cared about her. Empathy wasn't really a strange word to her, having showing it in plenty during her teen years. But after the murder of her family and as her world turned upside down, empathy had become something of a precious commodity. And Raynor was showering her with it.

Her thought was disrupted moments later as she heard the door into the holding cells opened and closed. She then heard footsteps coming nearer and nearer to her location. She did wonder at first of who had chosen to visit at this hour, only to be reminded that Mengsk had a thing or two about killing Raynor. As swift like a cat she leap of her bed and began to power up her psionic and kinesis ability.

"I may not have my weapons with me," she muttered to herself. "But I can still be as deadly."

She waited with baited breath until she saw a hooded figure walking in front of her cell. The figure slowly walked passed and stop right in front of Raynor's cell. The lone figure observed Raynor for a moment before it realized that Nova was watching. Quickly the figure back stepped towards her cell.

"Pssttt! Agent." He then signaled Nova to come near him.

Nova recognized that voice. Could it be, she thought to herself. Powering down, she began to walk slowly towards that hooded figure. As she gets nearer, she recognized who the figure truly was. It was the doctor who treated Raynor earlier.

"Doctor?" she said in surprised.

"Not so loud. It wasn't easy for me to gain access into the holding area. No time to explain though. Take this," the doctor whispered as he gave Nova something wrapped in white cloth. Nova unwrapped it and outcome something not unlike syringe shot.

"What is this, doctor?" asked Nova.

"The last dosage the commander needed for his treatment. You have to give it to him before the Zerg poison strengthen and kill him."

"Wait a minute. You're helping him? Why?"

"I only want to return the favor. The commander and his Raiders did once save my family and some of my friends when the Zerg raided Agria. If it wasn't for his action I won't be meeting them again. It was so stressful watching it all from the news and not be able to do anything. I thought I had lost everyone. You can imagine the feeling the first time I saw them again."

"I understand."

"Trust me, agent. I don't want to kill him. And I have some advice for you too."

"What is it?"

"You cared for Jim Raynor. If you truly want to see him live, you have to start thinking of something right now because the moment you're back on Korhal, they will do the mandatory memory wipe on you. You will forget everything. If that happens, the commander here," the doctor pointed to the sleeping figure of Raynor. "Will die. And the worst of all, your hand could be the cause of his death because the moment you forget everything, you won't hesitate to blow him up even if the emperor didn't ask you to."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: As usual, please read and review. Aside from theorizing on why Raynor wasn't killed by Mengsk, I'm also trying to figure out on why we only saw Nova for just a few seconds within the actual game. She even didn't appear at all during the final missions. You would have thought that Mengsk would have used her as one of his last defenses against Kerrigan. But nope, we didn't see her. Only that stupid artifact.**


	5. Chapter 5

Through the small window within her cell, Nova could clearly see Korhal IV as the Gorgon class battle cruiser began its docking procedure into one of many Korhal IV orbital platform. The planet itself had several space ports that can accommodate space faring vessels of various size but none of them could fit the recently designed Gorgon class battle cruisers so the White Star passengers had to disembark into one of the space platform and continued their journey towards the planet's surface via shuttles.

Being the central administration planet of the terran space, the forth planet within the Korhal system was indeed the bustiest region, even more than any other region or planetary system put together. Even from the confines of the small window, Nova could see ships and transporters in various sizes whizzed along their designated space route. Being the central location of the human activities this side of the galaxy, the routes designation were required as to avoid chaos within Korhal IV space as there would be billions of vehicle both space and land bound travelling at any given moment.

"Nice. And busy to boot."

Nova turned towards the source of that voice. She saw Raynor who was also looking out through the window.

"You're looking at the capital planet of the Dominion, Jim. Of course it looks that way," she replied.

"Yeah. I've been here once. Happy memories."

"You mean that media blitz maneuver you pulled off?"

"Yep."

"You gave us nightmares, Jim. The emperor was totally off the hinges for quite a few days after that."

Raynor chuckled. "Glad to hear that. Serve him right. I guess now he understands the meaning of truth and how it will bite him back in the end."

"Yeah."

"Where were you during all that commotions?" asked Raynor.

"Hunting you down."

"Really? You skills must have dulled a bit. I don't think I'm that difficult to find."

"Jim, my skills are sharp as ever. Remember when I seek you for help about Tosh? How do you think I could find you when the whole Dominion Empire had no idea where you were?"

Raynor went silent for a while. He then asked, "So Mengsk have nothing to do with that?"

"Part of it. He was well aware of Tosh effort to free his buddies from New Folsom and he became more worried when he got the news that Tosh seek you for help. The emperor do hate you Jim, but he didn't underestimate you at the same time. That's where I came in."

"What else did he asked you to do?"

Nova seeing the sense of dread coming out Raynor quickly replied, "Don't worry, Jim. I didn't do it. And he got that news from your old buddy, Tychus Findlay."

"Why am I not surprised. What did he asked you to do?"

"Well, he asked me to keep tab on you. He asked me to rig your ship with locaters. That way the Dominion will have no problem of finding you whenever they want to. I didn't do any of it."

"He didn't ask you to kill me? Or turn me to him?"

"Strangely no. I'm not sure what his reason was. Looking back, it does contradict with what he is trying to do now," Nova wondered.

"Yeah. Can I really trust you on what you just said?"

"Look Jim, if I really planted that locater onto your ship, you won't be able to put your feet on Korhal surface no matter how good your captain's connections are. And until now you're still alive."

Raynor's eye brow rose when he heard this. "You knew?"

"Everything. I know with whom Matt Horner deals with. I knew the location of your hidden base. I even knew where you are throughout that whole media blitz episode. I could clearly sense your where about, Jim."

"And yet you do nothing," stated Raynor.

Nova shook her head. "I was supposed to locate and infiltrate your base. I was supposed to stop whatever it was you were doing. I guess I might have succeeded if I really put much effort in it."

"So you're planning to fail? I guess you have your own reason to do that."

"Yeah. I have my reason. I guess maybe you can call it a payback for helping me back then. Though I have to say there's something different about you when we're together pulling that job off. The way you're protecting me for instance."

"That's not unusual, Nova. That's what I always do to those whom I called my allies."

Nova then walked towards the neosteel bar that separated her cell with Raynor. Her eyes continued to bore inside Raynor's. "Really Jim? Or is it something else? I know how someone protected his kin. You clearly showed more than that. And I'm just a temporary ally."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can sense you perfectly well, Jim. I know what you were thinking back then. I was curious but I decide to simply put that matter to rest. I felt it wasn't my place to delve into anything deemed personal to you."

"So Tosh and that voodoo doll? Did you both once have histories together?" asked Raynor, apparently trying to change the subject.

Nova's eye brows furrowed. It went like that for a few minutes before she finally replied, "Maybe yes. I can't remember."

"Memory wipe huh. But if you're really that grateful, why did you tried to kill me back on that research facility? It seems that everything that I had done to you came to… nothing."

Nova sighed. Once again sense of guiltiness reared its ugly head. She felt remorse and ashamed for what she had done. Looking down towards her feet, she slowly replied, "I had my orders, Jim. I don't know that… that you will end up doing what you had done. I don't know you're much more than that. I'm sorry, Jim."

Raynor took a deep breath and exhale slowly. He turned back to look through the window in front of him. "What's done is done, Nova. Nothing could ever change that."

"Please don't give up hope, Jim. I could help you to get out."

"You and what army? Look around you, Nova. You may be powerful but you still had you own limits. You could only get yourself killed."

"But you'll die if you stay!"

Raynor went towards Nova. His hands reached out to hers through the cell bar. "I'm an old man, Nova. I'm not afraid to die. Even if I die, there would always be someone who would take over my place and it would be so as long as Mengsk still lived. But you're still young. You have so much possibilities lies way ahead of you and I don't want to be in the way."

"But-," Nova couldn't finish her sentences as Raynor quickly put a finger onto her lips.

"But you can still help me. You can help by easing my worries on you. Don't let them wipe off any memories from you. It defined who we are Nova, no matter how bad it was. Without it, we're no more than a machine, an empty shell. Get out of here as soon as you had the chance and seek the Raiders. Help them in any way you can."

"But what about you?"

"Don't you worry about me. Don't you think much about me. I may no longer have the chance to do anything at this point but you still could do something about all these mess we're in."

Nova continued to gaze at Raynor He was still weak but thanks to the final dose supplied by the doctor, he looked much better and was able to stand up and walked a little bit. Still, there's no knowing what fate awaited him. Nova knew what will be coming of her, but there was no knowing whether Raynor would live or die in the end. Her mind began to replay the conversation she had with the doctor a few hours earlier. It what the doctor said is true, this would be the last time she saw Raynor.

Suddenly she heard door opening and footsteps closing in. Turning around, she saw a group of the Dominion marines fully suited up and for some reason several Ghost operatives.

"Hey you!" one of the marines addressed Raynor. "Turn around and put your hand behind your back! And don't try to do anything stupid unless you want to see your brain with your own eyes!" Raynor did as he was told. Raynor's cell door slide open and three marines stepped in. Two of them pointed their rifle towards Raynor as the third one began to handcuff Raynor. He then shoved Raynor towards the exit and walked pass the group of Ghost operatives. "That bitch is all yours," said the marine to one of the operatives.

The operative said nothing. He then signaled the other operatives to point their rifles towards Nova. Having done that, Nova cell's door slid open and he walked in. Standing just a few meters from her, he instructed Nova to repeat what Raynor did. She complied and escorted out the cell once she was properly handcuffed.

* * *

The shuttle safely docked at one of many Augustgrad military space port an hour later. During the journey down from the orbital platform, both Raynor and Nova sat facing each other and kept quiet throughout the whole journey. And so did the doctor who went to see her the night before. To Nova surprise, he was also handcuffed. Few cuts and bruises on his face showed that he was roughly handled when they caught him. He was simply looking down towards his feet. Nova could sense nervousness within him but strangely, no senses of regret.

"Doctor?"

The doctor slowly looked beside him. His eyes widen when his eyes met Nova. "They found out what I have done. I was caught the moment I went back to my quarters. The emperor was furious." he whispered.

"I'm sorry to hear that. You were just trying to help."

The doctor shook his head. "Don't be. I'm not. Not for a moment I regret what I had done, agent."

Nova sighed. "I wish there's something I could do for you."

"The fact is you can." Nudging towards Raynor, he said, "I've been charged with treason, agent. Either way they'll soon execute me so I'm no longer afraid to speak my mind. Get Commander Raynor out of here. Get yourself out of here. Seek the Raiders. Help them in any way you can. For as long as Emperor Mengsk still lives, there won't be peace and justice."

Nova, knowing that there won't be anything that she could do for the doctor simply nodded. Still, she grieved for him. Unlike many other Dominion officials, she could senses goodness inside him and Nova knew that the moment the shuttle touched down the surface, another good soul would be snuff out.

The doctor nodded with satisfaction. "A life for a life, agent. I'm more than glad to give up mine for someone who had only done good things to those whom I cared about. Not once I regret any of it. My hope is that you won't turn all that I had done into something worthless. For once throughout my whole life I had the chance to do something right. Know this, agent. From this moment forth, Doctor Jacob Schmidt vow his loyalty to the Raiders."

* * *

Shuttle 3501 landed onto one of the platform situated within Augustgrad west side space port compound fifteen minutes later. The doctor was roughly shoved out of the shuttle by the marines and escorted towards the temporary detention facility within the space port. He managed to give Nova a nod before he was taken away. Nova and Raynor, fronted by Mengsk and escorted by various marines and Ghost operatives, walked along the pathway from the platform towards one of the building located not far from there. The landing party was greeted by someone the moment they arrived at the building entrance.

"Your Highness," the figure bowed to Mengsk. "I am glad that you had reached Korhal safely though I must say I expected more of your company."

"Narud!" growled Raynor. "Who else you're gonna betray this time you slimy son of a bitch!"

Mengsk turned his gaze towards Raynor. He was apparently amused. "You had it coming, Mister Raynor. Doctor Narud here had been working for me since the formation of the Dominion. He is should I say, extremely valuable."

Raynor scoffed. "Glad to hear that, Acturus. Maybe you should hear the story of how he betrayed your son and how he destroyed that Moebius Foundation of his. Believe it or not, I just wish the good doctor here would do the same to you!""

Mengsk smiled. "Oh I believed you, Mister Raynor. If given the chance, you might jump on top of me and try to end my life at this very moment. But rest assured it won't happen. You're not going to be the death of me, Jim Raynor. But she," Mengsk pointed to Nova. "Could be the death of you. Moebius Foundation was always mine since its inception and Doctor Narud here, like you friend Tychus Findlay, had been working for me ever since."

Raynor, upon hearing Tychus name spoken out loud, tried to lunge at Mengsk. However, some of the marines that escorted them managed to pull him back just in time. "Don't you dare speak his name, Acturus! You corrupted him! You changed him!"

"No Mister Raynor. I gave him a new purpose. A purpose in which he had embrace it in full. A much better purpose than anything you could hope to give to him. You could try everything within your power to change him, but I assure you that you won't succeed. Tychus Findlay was mine until the end." Signaling towards the marines now standing beside Raynor he said, "Take Commander Raynor here to the palace and give him the tightest security possible. And you my dear," Mengsk looked towards Nova. "You will be a new person once the 'process' is complete." Mengsk then beckon Narud to follow him while Nova was towed away by the small army of Ghost operatives.

* * *

Twenty minutes had passed before Nova could see the Dominion Special Operations building loomed ahead. They were riding in a high speed maglev hover car speeding along the maglev highway at a speed close to three hundred and fifty miles per hour. The unmanned hover car slowed down as it exits the highway into a much narrower motorway, also magnetic levitated. It then went through a tunnel before it reached a line of vehicle elevators at the end of it. Once the hover car was secured onto one of the elevators, it then shoot down two hundred levels below and finally reached the entrance of Special Operations facility.

Nova was now escorted through the labyrinth of corridors within the huge facility. Strange at it seems, no other staff members gave her and her escort any indication that they recognize her or any of the Ghosts. They simply ignored them and continued with each own businesses. She was then brought into an interrogation room where she was left alone.

Nova looked around. She had seen people been interrogated within the same room she was in now but it never occurred to her that someday it would be her turn to be in it. The room's wall was painted a foreboding gray. A steel desk with two chairs propped in the middle. One of the walls sported a huge glass mirror. Nova knew what it was though. It was essentially a one way observation window and she was pretty sure there were people within the observation room looking at her. She could sense them. And few of them were Ghosts. Nova knew why they were there. The operatives' purposes were to scan her mind every now and then, just to see whether she intended to do anything deemed stupid. The only thing she could do right now was to keep her mind blank.

It wasn't for about another twenty minutes before the door into the room was open. In came few of the Ghosts operatives together with a bunch of men wearing white coverall. Nova knew who they were. They were the staff who manned the memory wipe laboratory within the Special Operation facilities. And they weren't friendly.

The laboratory that contained the memory wiped equipment looked just like the CAT scan facility you could find within any well equipped hospital and the equipment itself resembled the CAT scan. Nova entered the lab with a deep foreboding feeling this time. During her early days as a Ghost operative trainee, memory wipe was the procedure she was really looking forward too. But after participating in one of the training simulation called Valerian Scenario, she began to have doubt. She did go through it though as it was a requirement every time she fulfilled a mission. The foreboding feeling wasn't as deep as she now felt however.

She entered the laboratory with a bunch of lab technician. Much to her surprise, the Ghost operatives didn't followed behind. Having been in that room countless times, she knew pretty well the layout of the room. Four security cameras and the memory wipe machine.

The door closed behind them. Its now or never. As fast as a lightning, she grabbed one of the technicians closes to her and quickly twisted his head. The technician fell down as the sound of broken bone was heard. The other two sprinted towards the door but were psionically pulled back by Nova. Both of them fell down with blood coming out from their ears and eye socket, a clear indication that their brain was psionically fried. The door suddenly burst opened but Nova being the strongest psionic within the regime of the Dominion Ghost operatives easily out maneuvered the incoming Ghost operatives and they fell to their death within seconds.

Quickly, Nova relieved the dead Ghosts of their weapons and ammunitions. She even took the technician lab coat and put it on herself. She then went straight towards one of the security computer terminals located outside the laboratory. She hacked into the security terminals, cutting off the connection with outside world and quickly erased any evidence of what had happened within the lab. She even had the captured image of the lab frozen so that to any outsider wouldn't know what happened within the lab.

Once done and using one of the technician key card to lock the lab, she stepped out of the area and proceeded towards the lobby of the facility. So far so good, she thought to herself. The other staff still didn't realize what had happened within the lab but Nova knew she had to be quick. It was either she got caught before she was able to get out or Raynor getting killed. It was clear to her now of what Mengsk had intended out of her. Raynor would have to die by her own hands.

The lobby was quite a busy place which made it easy for her to sneak out. Wearing the Ghost suit also enable her to perfectly blend with the crowd. No one so far suspected that she was a Ghost who intended to defect.

She began to look around the moment she reached the side walk outside the building. She saw a lone car parked alongside the parking space outside the building but that's not what she was looking for. She then turned left and began to walk down the street. After a few hundred meters of walking, she found what she was looking for.

In front of her stood a parking garage specifically for maglev hover cars, and there were lots of them parked inside. Five minutes later, she was storming down the maglev highway heading towards the Imperial Palace.

"Hang on in there, Jim. I'm coming for you," she whispered.

* * *

_**Mengsk throne room, Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal IV…**_

"So this is the artifact?" asked Mengsk as he scrutinized the large blackened object in front of him.

"Yes My Lord," replied Narud. "The very same artifact that had defeated the Queen of Blades and changed her back into human. This will be the very weapon that you will need should in the very unlikely event the Queen of Blades. I have place the triggering remote within this box."

Mengsk took the decorative wooden box handed by Narud. His eye brows furrowed as he looked at the content of the box. "Seriously doctor? A cigar and a cigar lighter?"

Narud chuckled. "For an untrained mind it looks to them that way. Flip open the cigar lighter and you'll see a red button inside."

"Ah," said Mengsk as he did what Narud told him.

"That red button will trigger the artifact to release it powers. Though I have to say you may need to hide the artifact somewhere. Perhaps in the panic room? You will be better protected that way."

Mengsk shook his head. "If this artifact work like what you have said, there will no need for me to use the panic room. Though I would be lying if I didn't feel doubt in this artifact of yours. What is your guarantee that it would work?"

"I trust you had seen the footage of the artifact at work on Char, I believed?" asked Narud.

"Yes."

"Then you know what it can do. The triggering mechanism I installed within the artifact is the same design as the one on Char. I would know because I am the one who design it. You can expect the same effect when you use it," stated Narud.

"Very well," replied Mengsk. "I had invested a lot in this scheme of yours, Doctor Narud. I don't expect failures especially from someone like you."

"You won't regret, Your Highness."

However at that point the throne room communicator beeped. Mengsk quickly when towards the communicator console. Pressing a few button, the face of the commander of the palace security guard appeared. "This better be good, commander. I'm on an important meeting right now."

"My apology Your Highness but this is important. Agent X41822N had escape from the Special Operations facility!" replied the commander in earnest.

"What?! Did she get her memory erased?" asked Mengsk, flabbergasted by the unwelcome news.

"I doubt it, sir. All the technicians are dead. And so are the Ghosts that escorted her towards the location."

"Any information to where she was heading?"

"She headed straight towards the palace, sire! She'll be here within a few minutes!"

"Commander, have the palace in a total lockdown before she managed to-," Mengsk sentences was cut short as the palace security alarm suddenly blaring out loud.

"She's here, Your Highness," stated the security commander as he looked sideways, probably towards the other monitor within the control room. "I'm placing the throne room under full security lockdown. You must stay in there for your safety."

"Very well and see that you do," said Mengsk.

The commander gave Mengsk a salute before signing out. Mengsk then went toward the multiple observation monitor located behind his desk. Pressing a few buttons, the image of multiple locations within the palace suddenly appeared. And within one of the monitors was the image of Nova doing her things. Mengsk studied her image for a while before he realized what she after.

Quickly he contacted the security commander. "Commander, what is the status of the security around Jim Raynor?"

"Minimal sir," replied the commander. "The bulk of the palace security forces were sent to engage the rogue Ghost. We'll stop her sir, don't you worry."

"Commander, your officers are facing the most powerful psionic operative in the Dominion history. Your boys won't stand a chance!"

"What you'll have us do sir?"

Mengsk thought for a while before he replied, "Get Jim Raynor out of there and head towards the nearest landing platform. Have a shuttle ready at once and bring him towards the main Dominion military command base and stay there. I want the security around the rebel commander to be as tight as possible, do you scan me?"

"Crystal, sir." With that, the commander signed out.

"Are you still going to kill him, Your Highness?" asked Narud.

"Yes I am. One way or another," replied Mengsk. "Jim Raynor had been alive for far too long. It's time that he leaves the world of living for good."

Narud nodded. "Can I give my input in this matter, Your Highness?"

"Fire away, doctor."

"It would be better if you keep him alive, My Lord."

"Why on Korhal would I want to do that?!" replied Mengsk with a bit of anger in his voice.

"Please listen, My Lord. Look at the big picture. You have now in custody a man so dangerous to you. You have two psionically powerful women who would be more than willing to die for him. Jim Raynor would be more dangerous to you dead than him being alive."

"Sarah Kerrigan was already weaken, doctor. Her connection with the Zerg had been severed. There won't be anything she could do."

Narud shook his head. "On the contrary Your Highness, she is still strong as ever. Perhaps even stronger than the time before her infestation." Narud then proceed to narrate on what had happened on Prometheus space station. Mengsk was dumbfounded the moment the story ended.

"Are you sure that's what really happened, Doctor Narud. No one could defeat a hybrid, let alone two with only bare hands."

Narud sighed. "Trust me My Lord. It really happened. I lost two of my hybrids in that fight. The third managed to hold her off but only barely. I myself nearly got caught if it wasn't for that hybrid."

Mengsk went silent upon hearing that. The sense of fear began to creep within his heart. Silently, he began to curse himself for the decision he made four years ago. A decision that only resulted in him being haunted by the very woman he intended to kill on Tarsonis.

Narud took the chance to continue speaking, "Jim Raynor would be better left alive, Your Highness. Killing him won't stop her from seeking you. In fact the only thing you would do is to add another reason for her to seek revenge on you. And don't forget that rogue Ghost of yours. If I have to say, she fought exactly like the Queen of Blades. Just look at her."

Mengsk nodded. "You have a point there doctor, and I know exactly what to do." Mengsk once again pressed a few buttons on the communicator console.

"Commander, get me Moros."

* * *

Bullets whizzed by her but none of them hit her. All of it fell within a few centimeters from her skin. She shot a few rounds, ducked and several times use her psionic power to bring down her enemy. With the psionic barrier erected around her, nothing could touch Nova at that very moment. She continued to walk towards her target leaving trails of utter destruction behind.

"Agent X41822N!"

Nova stopped as she heard her name was called out through the palace public address system. She immediately recognized who the owner of the voice was.

"Mengsk!"

"I admired your dedication for that rebel commander but that dedication I feared is misplaced. You are an officer of the Dominion military and I advise you to continue to behave as such. Now lay down your weapons and I'll promise you the commander won't be harm. Try otherwise and Jim Raynor would be alive no more."

Upon hearing that, Nova began to scan for Raynor signature. He was still alive but she senses that he was moving away from her. However at that point, she was surrounded by the palace security guards, all of which were pointing their gun towards her.

She looked towards each of them and said, "I don't want to hurt any of you. Just let me get what I came here for. All of you don't have to die."

"Commendable agent," said one of the security guard whom Nova recognized as the commander of the palace security. "But you're just one person against us. Now lower you weapon and surrender."

Nova looked straight at the commander. "You know I'm not going to."

The commander sneered. "Yeah I know you won't do what you've been told. You've always been a stubborn bitch you are and yet the emperor still likes you. What did you do? Sleep with the emperor?"

That last sentences ticked her off and a minute later, all around her were reduced to rubbles, courtesy of her own very potent psionic scream. Breathing hard, she looked around. All of the guards laid dead. Some of them had their head exploded in such a gory fashion. Ignoring the grim view in front of her, she sprinted towards Raynor's location.

However the moment she reached the landing platform, the shuttle carrying Raynor had already departed. Nova could only look as the shuttle was getting further and further by the moment. She was too late.

"No!"

Suddenly she heard gunshots. She looked behind and saw many more security guards were coming towards her. Nova then quickly ran towards the edge of the platform and jumped off it. The security guards quickly reached the location where Nova had jumped and began to scan the area.

"She's gone!"

* * *

He heard the news. The sense of dread began to creep within his heart.

"Your Highness?"

Mengsk looked back towards the monitor in front of him.

"Captain, had Jim Raynor arrived safely onboard your shuttle?"

"Yes Your Highness. We're ready to depart for Moros right away," replied the captain.

"Very well. I have sent you extra reinforcement just in case you need them. And don't forget of our arrangement, captain. The most important thing is, don't let anyone found you."

"It will be done, My Lord."

The screen blinked out. Reclining against his plush armchair, Mengsk began to reflect everything that had happened.

Sarah Kerrigan. Agent X41822N, once known as Nova Terra. Both of them were now a danger to him. But he had his own weapon to handle both of them. And he had plans already laid out in front of him. Both of them will come to him, but it would be the death of them.

_**End of part 1…**_

**A/n: This is quite a long chapter. Hope it will as good as I hope it will. As usual please read and review. Oh by the way, Blood Roses will be reactivated soon. Just so you know.**


	6. Chapter 6

_**We were never meant to be – A Prologue**_

_**Hyperion bridge… 4 days after the escape from the Umojan Research facility.**_

Planet Moria.

Look just like planet Mar Sara but much bigger in size. Rich in mineral resources and known to harbor some of the largest reserves of vespene gas within the Koprulu sector. Ruled by the Kel-Morian Combine conglomerate, that last fact was what vexed Valerian most.

His brow furrowed as he continued to gaze at the red planet right in front of him. Kel-Morian Combine was never a good news to him, or at least to the Dominion. Once an ally, they turned into a foe right at the end of the Brood War. Like everyone else, they were once duped by his father's promise of equality in everything and freedom to practice what they had always was. But that all was change once the Dominion began to strengthen. His father had begun to force his hand on all the other terran factions and organizations within the sector. The fact that the Combine was reduced to a shadow of its former glory by his father's hand had strengthened the Combine's leadership hatred to the Dominion as a whole.

He had quite a heated argument with Matt regarding the captain's choice of a location in which they could hide. Until the end, the Hyperion's captain and the Raider's number two still insisted that Moria was the best choice.

"You still didn't want to reconsider your decision, Captain Horner?" asked Valerian without looking at the captain.

Horner, who at that time was busy looking at his data pad looked up towards the young prince. Returning to his data pad, he replied, "I've told you once and I've told you twice, my decision is final. So get over it."

Valerian turned towards the captain. "And I've also told you that there could be other locations that we can hide and resupply the ships. You Raiders were known to be adapted in hiding. Surely you know a lot of hidey holes that are much safer than this."

Once again Horner looked up towards Valerian. His face looked stern. Putting away his data pad, he said, "Valerian, we have four battle cruisers that need refueling and repairing. We have a lot more mouth - that includes your men - to feed. There's a lot of damn things that need to be restocked. Medicines and spare parts. While we still possess some of credits your foundation had paid us, it won't be enough to pay for all that repairing and resupplying. Kel-Morian is the only organization that had been honest with us and was willing to shelter us. I've told you this before and I'm not going to repeat it again."

"All that could change once they knew there's the Dominion men onboard your ship captain," Valerian tried to argue. "Moria may no longer be a safe haven for any of you. You know how much they hated us."

"Don't you worry, Valerian. I can handle that," stated Horner. "We could just tell them that your men are now one of us."

"And what about the fact that you also harbored a Dominion royalties? Do you think would they would take kindly with that sort of things?" asked Valerian.

Horner shook his head. He was indeed clearly amused with what Valerian had pointed out. "Apparently you have forgotten all about our little stint on The Deadman's Rock. It happened just a few weeks ago, Valerian. You should still remember it pretty well."

"What's that got to do with our current situation?"

"The Deadman's Rock population had as much hatred to the Dominion as the Kel-Morian themselves. That plus the fact that most of them are criminals and gangsters. Compared to what we faced back then, the Kel-Morian would be a piece of cake. Just stay calm. As long as you're willing to replay your part, you'll be safe."

"Replay my part?" Valerian thought for a while until it dawn upon him of what he must do. "You must be kidding, captain. You want to repeat that whole maneuver we did on that planet? Have you forgotten what that turned into?"

"No I still remember it. Situation is now different, Valerian. Back then, we have a back stabber within our midst," replied Horner.

"What makes you think we won't have any more back stabbers just bidding for their time?"

"We all heard what happened to Cooper, Valerian. He expected to be rewarded by your father but instead he got to spend the rest of his life inside a small room within the New Folsom prison. If that didn't serve as a strong deterrent to anymore back stabbers wannabe, I don't know what will. I promise you that things will be different this time. All I'm asking is your willingness to play your part. Besides, I'm not planning to stay for long. We'll resupply and once all the major repair works been done, we will head out once again. Now I want you to stay away from the main monitor while I make some arrangement with our Kel-Morian friends," said Horner as he walked towards the communicator console.

"What then?" asked Valerian.

Horner turned around to look at Valerian. He raised his eye brows, curious of what Valerian had asked him. "What then what?"

"What's your next plan once we've done with the Kel-Morian?"

Horner continued to gaze at Valerian. Moments later he turned back his attention towards the communicator console and began to type. As the main monitor came to life with the image of a Kel-Morian officer, he slowly replied, "Find a way to rescue Jim. And you better hope that your father didn't touch him. Just one scratch on Jim would be more than enough of an excuse for Kerrigan to slaughter the whole of the Dominion world. And that could include us."

* * *

_**On the far side of the Brutus moon of Moria…**_

Her green eyes continued to stare at the image of the Hyperion battle cruiser prominently displayed on the central monitor within the cockpit of the small space interceptor. She had found them at where she expected them to be.

She had mixed feeling about this but that was what Jim had asked her to do. And she will do anything for him.

"For you, Jim," she softly whispered.

_**To be continued..**_

**A/n: And thus began the second part of the story. This one was supposed to be longer but I decided to post it somehow and make it only as a prologue.**


	7. Chapter 7

**We were never meant to be - 1**

_**Augustgrad, Korhal…**_

"Everything's ready Your Highness. And here's the transcript of the speech that you've asked."

Mengsk took the data pad containing the transcript and began to examine it. Minutes later he nodded, apparently satisfied with what he had read. "Everything seems to be in order. Good job Charles. That should do it."

"Can I ask you a question, My Lord?"

Mengsk nodded.

"Forgive me but do you think by making that broadcast could achieve anything? We both know what you're going to say doesn't reflect what really had happened," stated Whittier. Charles Whittier, once the personal cum security assistant for Mengsk estranged son, Valerian, was now a personal assistant of his.

Mengsk said nothing for the moment. Standing in the middle of the room, he simply let a group of his personal groomers setting him up for the live broadcast. It wasn't until a few minutes later before he answered Whittier's question, "Believe me, Charles. I've already weight on everything."

"What do you plan to achieve, sir?"

"My position as the sole ruler of the Dominion strengthen. Disunity and discord among my enemies," replied Mengsk simply.

"Sir, you know that agent X41822N had already turned against you. That's not including the Queen of Blades," stated Whittier. The incident at the palace a couple of days before did rattle him. He was among the few of those who fortunate enough to see Nova in action without becoming the victim themselves.

The groomers' task was now done. In as immaculate condition as possible Mengsk was in, he turned to look at Whittier. With that stern look on his face, Mengsk replied, "Then agent X41822N will realize by now that her attempt on me would be a fool's effort. And I don't have to remind you that the Queen of Blades had been taken care of. She would never be able to retake control of the Zerg. If you did take a look at any of the military reports that poured in within this few days, you can see that we are gaining an upper hand in our fight against the Zerg. The Zerg are now leaderless, Charles. They have thrown into disarray, feral even. They are no longer a threat. My explanation cannot be much more clearer than this and unless you have grown stupid over this past few days, I may have to consider looking for your replacement."

Whittier quickly bowed to the emperor. "All is clear, sir."

"Good."

At that point, a UNN staff came in to announce that they were now ready to broadcast Mengsk speech. Mengsk simply nodded and immediately headed towards the broadcasting studio specially prepped for him. Whittier simply watched the emperor walking away until he disappeared behind the studio's door.

What the emperor had said made sense, he thought to himself. But deep down, he felt that there would be more to come. They might not hear the last of Agent X41822N or the Queen of Blades. This may not be just the end. Instead, it could be just the beginning of a terrible ending.

* * *

_**Kel-Morian orbital shipyard 1, Planet Moria…**_

It was so degrading and way too uncomfortable. That was what he felt the first time he don that costume so to speak on Dead Man's Rock. The fact that he had a really charming and handsome look means that the Raiders had to go over creative on him just to hide his true identity. Well, that was easy back then. Aside from Mira Han, virtually no one else on that planet had seen his face. And Matt was banking on the knowledge and assumption that Kel-Morian was no different.

The Hyperion was now fully docked within the orbital shipyard. The repairing and restocking process began immediately just as soon as the huge battle cruiser touched down onto one of the available dry docks. The Kel-Morian seemed to realize the time constrain the Raiders were having so they had everything ready even before the Raiders arrival.

"Ready, Valerian?" asked Horner. The captain came to his quarter's right before they both together with few others were to disembark. For some reasons well known to the Raiders, Swann declined to follow, preferring instead to stay on the ship.

"I'm ready but I don't like it," muttered Valerian. Aside from the near misses they nearly had on Dead Man's Rock, the possibility of the Kel-Morian themselves realizing whom he truly was seemed to unsettle him. Questions of what will happen then if they find out who he truly was kept repeating inside his mind.

Horner who seemed to understand Valerian's concerns patted him on his shoulder as they both walk towards the elevator. "I'm not asking you like it. I'm only asking you to play along. Besides, it won't do for a future Dominion leader to simply lock himself inside his room just because someone out there doesn't like him."

Valerian stopped and turned to face Horner. "That's the strangest thing that I heard ever comes out of you, captain. I thought the Raiders of all people wouldn't want a Mengsk to be the leader of the terrans."

"The Dominion, Valerian. Not the terrans," Horner corrected him. "You did prove yourself during all those near misses we had after Char was concluded. You had a lot of opportunities to hand us over to your father but you didn't take any of it. You even played your part in helping the Raiders and to some extent Kerrigan herself. You have the choice of an easy path laid out in front of you but you chose a much more difficult way. To be honest, I was stump at first. I'm not sure what your reason was but what you did had helped us a lot."

Valerian pondered for a moment as they continued to walk. As they arrived in front of the elevator door, Valerian said, "I have confessed to Commander Raynor that I wanted to be a better man. A much better emperor than my father could ever be. To be that would mean only one thing. I cannot do whatever my father had done and will be doing. Handing over the Raiders to him would mean that whatever I am hoping to become would be out of my reach. I would be just like him."

"So you're okay with the notion that your father will be taken down one day? You know that we would never stop until that is achieve and you're okay with that too?" asked Horner.

Valerian shook his head. "If you mean that he would be taken down from the throne, the answer would be yes. I still want him to be alive, captain. He's the only family I got left. People could change and I hope as time goes by, he will."

Horner considered Valerian for a moment. Pressing the button on the elevator, he replied, "Then I hope that your confidence will not be misplaced. People could change but it won't mean that they will change. And that will include your father."

Throughout his life Valerian almost always had someone who would watch over him, giving him the security and protection that his father deemed required. The situation cannot being helped though especially when he was a son of a rebel leader and the need for security increases as his father became the sole ruler of the largest terran empire. But now all of that had gone. And the worst part was, for the first time ever he will step into an enemy territory without an army, let alone a bunch of personal guards to watch his back.

Exiting the elevator, they walked towards the docking bridge already extended from the orbital platform docking bay and at the end of the bridge, someone was waiting for them.

A bit taller than Horner and sporting beards just like Raynor, the only thing that different was his shaved head. The man went forwards to greet Horner.

"It's been a long time old friend," he said as they both shook hands and hugged each other.

"It's good to see you again, Lars," greeted Horner. "I see you're getting older. How time really flies, huh?"

Bergstrom laughed. "Wiser, Matt. Not older. So this is what's left of the Raiders?" He said as his eyes wandered at each and every faces that followed Horner until his eyes rested squarely on Valerian. His brow furrowed. "Hello what have we got here? I don't remember you being a part of the Raiders before."

Valerian was about to open his mouth before Horner cuts in, "Lars, we should talk. Maybe somewhere more secure."

Bergstrom nodded though his eyes haven't left that of Valerian's. "Alright. Let's go to my office. I got some news for you too."

* * *

_**Lars Bergstrom administrative office, Orbital shipyard 1, Planet Moria…**_

Cramped. That was one thing that could be described about Bergstrom's office. Unlike the Umoja who revel in doing everything in a much more exquisite way, the Kel-Morian preferred a more laidback and practical approach. These despite the fact that they were much richer than any other factions in the sector, aside from the Dominion.

Cabinet of files lined up every wall and at the center of the room was an office desk and a few rickety chairs. Bergstrom invited both Horner and Valerian to sit while he prepared a few glass of drinks. Handing the glasses over to his guest, he proceeded to sit in front of them.

"I was expecting to see Commander Raynor," he said. Bergstrom was the Raider's main contact with the Kel-Morian. He was once a Raynor Ranger before he decided to follow Myles Hammond, a former magistrate of Mar Sara, and they both continue to work behind the scene, gathering intel and resources for the Raiders. Hammond since then retired and leave the job to Bergstrom. It was him who nailed out the agreement for the Kel-Morian to become one of the main benefactors to the Raider's cause since the end of the Brood War. Raynor, sensing that it won't be good for the Raiders to heavily depended on the Kel-Morian, decline to sign it but at the same time pointed out that he will gladly accepted any assistance the Kel-Morian could give. The Kel-Morian agreed. The alternative arrangement had so far worked well with Raider's almost always getting more than what they paid for. The Kel-Morian reasoned that it was because they were much more effective in defying the Dominion than any other rebel groups existed within the sector.

Sipping a little of the wine in his glass, Horner replied, "We haven't heard anything from him ever since that incident at the Umojan research facility." Horner then proceeded to retell the whole story of the said incident while at the same time taking care to leave out Kerrigan's part.

Bergstrom brow furrowed once the tale ended. Sipping more of the wine from his glass, he said, "And that's why you come here. I'm telling you, it was amazing on how you could get here in one piece. That crates of yours would be fully eligible to be thrown into a dumpster. All of them really need some heavy reworking to get them space worthy once again. I'm not sure if they 're still battle worthy though."

"It was even before that," said Horner as he continued to sip his wine. "Prior to Umoja, we were relentlessly chased by Mengsk throughout the sector. We hardly could stay within a location for more than fifteen minutes before Mengsk found us. Apart from that, our battle cruiser had been sabotaged when we docked at one of Mengsk's researched outpost. You can basically notice the gravity of the situations we were in back then," replied Horner.

Bergstrom sat upright when he heard Horner's last sentences. "I've noticed! Damn it, Matt! Docking at one of the Dominion outpost?! What's got into your head?!"

"Believe me Lars, it wasn't my call. We did have quite an argument back then. The fact that the outpost was located somewhere within the Kirkegaard Belt also doesn't help," replied Horner.

"You mean the so call Kick-you-good Belt? No wonder that your ships are in such a sorry state. If I have to guess, I say you and the commander got quite a persuasion there, am I right?" asked Bergstrom.

Horner sighed. Pinching his nose bridge, he nodded. "That would be a yes."

Bergstrom nodded. "And the persuader would be the person now sitting beside you."

Valerian was alarmed. He simply looked at Bergstrom, unable to say anything. Horner, upon sensing the danger Valerian or any of them could be in, tried to reason with Bergstrom.

"Lars-," Horner couldn't continue as Bergstrom put up his hand and signaled him to remain silent.

Bergstrom then leaned back on his chair and turned his gaze towards Valerian. "Yeah, I know who you are, Prince Valerian. Even beneath those disguises, you still stick out like a sore thumb. I don't know what you had done to earn a ride with the Raiders, but I figured it must be something good. You're lucky. If it wasn't for my close friendship with Matt and Jim, I would have handed you straight away to the Kel-Morian council."

"Lars," Horner leaned forward. "He's cleaned. He did help us escape from the Dominion. That incident on that Dominion outpost wasn't his call either. He was betrayed like the rest of us and now he's a fugitive, just like the rest of us. Don't worry about him."

Bergstrom nodded. He still wasn't smiling. "I'll accept your explanation Matt, but don't expect me to trust him. His father's betrayal was still fresh inside my mind as if it happened only yesterday. Billions died on that day. Jim wasn't himself for quite a few weeks after he lost Sarah. Not only the dead feel the aftermath of what his father had done."

"Mr. Bergstrom," Valerian finally spoke out. "I fully realize what my father had done and rest assured that I didn't like any of it. I'm not my father. I promise you that I will make amends to whatever crime my father had done."

Bergstrom snorted. "Don't make promises that you never intended to keep, young prince. I will only believe you if you really act on your words."

Deafening silences ensued for a few minutes after that. It was Horner who finally chose to broke it, "I believe you had some news for us?"

Bergstrom was pulled out of his thought. "Oh yes, I forgot. Let me-," however he was interrupted when Horner's communicator went off.

Horner picked up his communicator. "Captain Horner here."

"Captain, we've captured a Dominion Ghost trying to break into the ship."

"Where is he now?" asked Horner.

"We held her inside the interrogation room. And he is a she, captain."

"I'm on my way."

Bergstrom raised his eye brows. "I'm impressed, Matt. Your guys manage to capture a Ghost operative!"

Horner shook his head. "I'm not sure capture would be the word to describe it. For all I know, she could be surrendering. Want to tag along Lars?"

Bergstrom nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

_**Hyperion interrogation room, a few minutes later…**_

Horner, Valerian and Bergstrom stood there, simply dumbstruck. Sitting in front of them was a really beautiful blonde woman in a Ghost outfit that accentuated her curves. Her fair skin and her long hair tied up in a ponytail only strengthened her beauty even more.

"I believe you had your own reason to come here, Nova," stated Horner.

"I have," replied Nova. "I was instructed to seek the Raiders."

"By my father?" asked Valerian.

Nova turned to look at Valerian. Her face was expressionless.

"No," she answered. "I was instructed by Jim Raynor."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: How's that? Finally another chapter to add to the collection. Bear in mind that this story is an extension of HotS. This ain't an alternate universe. I am simply trying to figure out things that happened off screen. Hope you guys like it. And please for goodness sake review after you read. That would make me happy.**


	8. Chapter 8

**We were never meant to be – 2**

A tale worth telling indeed. Especially a tale that was akin to a really good action movie. A hero against many an adversary and ended in cliffhanger in which the audience would no doubt getting impatience to watch its sequel. Eager to know what was going to happen to the object of the rescue and whether or not the hero will succeed in the end.

The three of them were riveted to each of their chair as Nova narrated on what had happened from the moment she captured Raynor at the Umojan Research facility until her failed attempt to rescue the rebel commander at the Imperial Palace.

"I was held up and couldn't reach the landing platform in time," she said. "The shuttle took off just as I arrived. I had to flee and went into hiding as the emperor launched a planet wide search for me."

"So you have no idea where Jim Raynor was taken to?" asked Horner.

Nova shook her head. "I hacked into the military network every time I got the chance. I've checked every travel log and travel schedule of every military land and space bound vehicle. I even check every Dominion's penal facility's inmate records available. There's just no Jim Raynor in there."

"Agent Nova," Valerian voiced out. "Have you ever considered that Jim Raynor's details could only be keyed into the system much-much later? Have you checked the system thoroughly?"

"Prince Valerian," Nova replied. A bit of resentment could be detected within her voice. Nova clearly didn't take it really well whenever someone else questioned her abilities. "I've last checked two hours before I arrived at this location. There's still no data on Jim. He could be anywhere at this point of time. I've suspected the emperor may intend to keep Jim under the radar and out of the grid. He clearly didn't want Jim to be found."

Horner pondered for a while. He then turned towards Valerian. "Do you know anywhere, any location that you father might keep his political prisoners a secret? In and out of Korhal?"

"There were several locations that he once used to do just that," Valerian replied. "The Ghost Academy and the Dominion Intelligence Agency building were some of them."

"Nova?" asked Horner.

Once again Nova shook her head. "I've checked them too. The Academy, DIA, Secret Services, virtually every location I could think of. All comes out negative. I have to remind all of you that even if Jim's data wasn't input within the main Dominion network, it would still exist within the local server of each and every location and still very much reachable. If Jim was there, I will know."

Horner lean back on his chair, pinching his nose bridge and closing his eyes. He felt defeated. The four battle cruisers strong fleet hadn't moved out from the Kel-Morian orbital shipyard and yet he had already faced a major stumbling block in his plan to seek out Raynor and rescue him. There were thousands of worlds and millions of locations on where Raynor could be at that very moment. Seeking him from planet to planet won't be an option. Not only that, he also had Kerrigan's problem to be worried about. The former Queen of Blades was still relatively unstable. Until now, only Raynor had the ability to keep her under control. Horner hated to think of what she would do next. If she indeed returned the Zerg like he had always suspected, all of their efforts and incurred losses on Char would be a terrible waste.

Bergstrom, upon seeing his friend in distraught, offered his mind, "If Jim was indeed within a fixed location anywhere in the Dominion space, we could find it. Mengsk won't be able to hide him for long. My only worry is that if a moving prison was being used."

Horner's curiosity peaked up. "Moving prison? You mean?"

Bergstrom nodded. "Yup. A moving prison ship. Jumping here and there randomly with no detectable pattern and always in radio silences. Never stays within a location for more than a few minutes, maybe up to half an hour before warping towards another random coordinates. You have to very quick once you detected their last location. Just a few seconds late would be enough to lose them once again. And mind you, moving prison ship usually didn't have tracker device installed so tracking them the traditional way won't be an option."

"That's just great!" Horner put up his hand resigning in defeat. "I need help here, Lars. Can you think of any workaround if Mengsk do choose that option?"

Scratching his chin, Bergstrom replied, "Well, The ship will have to eventually stop by to refuel and resupply every now and then. Depending on what kind of service they receive from a particular orbital platform, it could be anything from an hour stop up to three hours. That would be the length of the window you have if you decided to move in and you better pray that you're not that far in order to warp in just in time. However, based on the current situation we have in front of us, there might be one other factor that you could count on."

"What is it?" asked Horner.

"Jim would obviously a very important prisoner to Mengsk. He will want an update very now and then. The ship will have to break radio silence and they will have a pattern. All you need to do is to figure out that pattern so that you can predict when the next time the ship open its communication channel to Mengsk. From there, you can start to triangulate their location and try to move closer and closer until that ship is within your grasp. It could be a long shot though but worth a try," explained Bergstrom.

Horner sighed. "So far we have yet know what Mengsk had in store for Jim, but thanks anyway, Lars. We could use that idea of yours if Mengsk do choose that way to hide Jim."

Bergstrom nodded. "Well I'm glad to help, Matt. Jim is my friend too and there's nothing else I wanted to see other than him return to us. I'll see if I could add anything else that would help you in your quest. Some equipment maybe."

"I'll appreciate that. Thank you, Lars," replied Horner.

"Can I help?" Nova suddenly voiced out. The trio suddenly realized they had blurted everything out in front of a Dominion Ghost. Sensing their apprehensiveness, Nova said, "I'm not going back to the Dominion if that what you're worrying about. I want Jim back even more than you do and I won't stop until he's in front of me once again."

"It would be better if you don't get yourself involved. Considering everything you did had brought to his capture in the first place, trusting you won't be an option," asked Horner.

"I regret every single one of it, Captain Horner," said Nova. "Not for a single moment that I wasn't haunt by everything that I had done to him. I'm not asking you to trust me. I'm only asking for a chance to make things right, at least for once. Jim truly matters to me, captain. I want him back."

Not again, Horner thought to himself.

"Not again what?" asked Nova. Her eye brows rose as she heard what Horner was thinking.

"Urm nothing," muttered Horner. He didn't dare to think any further, especially in front of a strong telepath. Especially when that telepath began to harbor affection for Raynor.

It was at this time that Valerian chose to step forward. With his eyes still laid on Nova, he said, "I think we should give her a chance."

"Why would I want to do that?" asked Horner.

"Look, we want Commander Raynor back as much as she did. Her combined abilities would be a great help to us."

"I don't know.."

"Captain Horner, I'm not going to repeat whatever it was you and Mr. Bergstrom had discussed. Believed me, I totally agree with both scenario that both of you had mentioned. Still, we have yet know what my father was actually planning. We all better pray that he won't take the third course."

"Which is?" asked Bergstrom.

"Killing him."

All of them went silent. Truth to be told, all them do feel that killing Raynor won't be far off and certainly doable by Mengsk. In any case, locating and rescuing Raynor had become a matter of great urgency.

"If Jim dies," said Nova. Her hands had curled into a ball of fist. "There will be hell to pay!"

You won't be the only one, again Horner thought to himself.

Nova gave Horner a glance as Horner chastised himself for letting his thought wandered off. He almost broke the news of what Raynor had with Kerrigan to Nova.

Bergstrom suddenly stood up. Looking at each and everyone within the room, he spoke, "We better get to work. Time is now against us, Matt. It would be quite a few days before all the critical repairs being done. While you're here, I suggest that you started looking for any clue of Raynor's where about. If things do go south for him and you can't afford to wait until the repairs been done, I'll try to work out if we could lend a battle cruiser to you."

"I'll appreciate that, Lars. Thank you."

Bergstrom nodded. Pointing his hands towards Nova, he said, "You might want to cut the missy here some slack, Matt. You're going to need all the help you can get."

Horner sighed. Silently he nodded. He then turned towards Valerian and Nova. "I'm putting Nova under my command, Valerian. And Nova, see that you do whatever I is I'm telling you to do. I'm putting much faith in you and I hope I'm not wrong."

Nova nodded and gave Horner a salute.

However, just as they prepared to leave the room, one of the Raider's crew barged in. Panting, he quickly gave Horner a salute. "Sir! You need to come to the bridge right away! The emperor made a special broadcast and its about Commander Raynor!"

* * *

_**Hyperion bridge, five minutes later…**_

"**Proud Dominion Citizen.**

**At long last, our nightmare is over. The lawless terrorist James Raynor is dead.**

**With his death comes a new era of peace.**

**The Protoss have retreated from our Dominion and the Zerg threat has been removed.**

**Their Swarm is shattered and leaderless.**

**Soon we will eradicate every last Zerg on Char. In short, we have won.**

**Our peace and security is assured.**

**Good night, my faithful subjects."**

Deafening silence ensued within the huge battle cruiser bridge. Some of the Raiders, including Horner, began to shed some tears. There was no word that could describe of what each and everyone felt at that very moment.

"Is it really happening? The commander is dead?" asked one of the female Raiders. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as her eyes were glued to the main screen.

Horner remained silent. The newly instated leader of the Raider couldn't say anything. It was just too much. Too much for him handle all at once. All of a sudden, all of them heard a whimper.

"It can't be. It can't be. I don't believe it. It can't be."

All of them turned towards Nova. They saw her shaking her head. Her cheeks were wet with tears. She began to step backwards, trembling as she continued to mutter the same words over and over again.

"Nova," said Valerian as he walked towards Nova, intending to comfort her. However he stopped mid way as Nova began to speak incoherently.

"He's still alive! He can't be dead! He can't be dead! I don't want him to be dead!" Nova began to shout.

"Nova!"

At this time however, Nova had started screaming. The ship then began to shake violently. All of the bridge's windshield cracked and burst into pieces. Everyone was thrown off their feet as the battle cruiser continued to violently trembled. Moments later, Nova's body began to emit a very bright whitish glow.

Valerian upon noticing what Nova was about to do quickly yelled, "She's about to blow! Taze her!"

One of the marine who managed to stood up quickly leap towards Nova. Branding a tazer and positioning it towards Nova's neck, he quickly tazed the Ghost operative. Nova struggled for a moment before she went limped and fell onto the floor. Moments later, all the shaking and trembling subsided.

"What was that?!" demanded Bergstrom as he carried himself up from the floor. He was still shaking from the ordeal.

"It's a psionic scream, Mr. Bergstrom," replied Valerian. He himself was very pale from what had happen just now.

"You know what she's gonna do?" Bergstrom asked.

Valerian nodded. "This wasn't her first time doing that. She once destroyed half of a skyscraper and demolished several building blocks."

"You saw what she did? When did that happened?"

Valerian shook his head. "No. That incident was contained within her records at the academy. This is the first time ever I saw she did the psionic scream with my own eyes. That incident happened when she was fifteen years old on Tarsonis. She was the daughter of one of the influential Old Families. One day she found that her parents were murdered in cold blooded. Things happened after that and when the security got to that location, it was like a mini version of Armageddon. Hundreds of people died within that day."

"It's hard to believe she could do something like that," Bergstrom shook his head.

"Believe me Mr. Bergstrom, that really happened. At that time, she was fifteen. Her powers weren't developed that well. Just imagine what she could do now that she's a fully trained Ghost operative."

"Well, that explains it," Horner suddenly voiced out.

"Explain what?" asked both Bergstrom and Valerian.

Horner landed his gaze towards both Bergstrom and Valerian. "Didn't you guys see it? Nova is in love with Jim."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: Okay another chapter added to the collection. Enjoy! Chapters after this will mostly deal with Nova. As usual, kindly review after your read.**


	9. Chapter 9

**We were never meant to be – 3**

_**Hyperion med bay, five hours after the incident…**_

Advance medical equipments lined up the four grey walls of the private ward. Placed at the center of the room was a bed and lying on that bed was a blonde haired young woman. Buffed up security was in place at the entrance of the ward, signaling the significant importance for anyone who had the pleasure so to speak, in inhabiting that ward. However, that ward wasn't meant for her. It was meant for someone else. Someone whom until now being held dear by a certain rebel commander.

Sarah Kerrigan of course never had the chance to use that ward. She was stuck on the Bucephalus ever since the terran alliance retrieved her from her primary hive on Char, nearly human and all weakened. Since then, a flurry of wild chases ensued between the terran alliance and the Dominion military, headed by Acturus Mengsk himself. While in most occasions the alliance managed to shake off their pursuer, they never had the chance for a breather as Mengsk had always managed to find them minutes later. Their two temporary stops also didn't hold that much protection for them. Mira Han, Matt Horner's estranged wife and the current leader of the Dead Man's Rock governing body, had set up quite a nice arrangement for them during their temporary stay at that rouge planet. Despite Horner's contempt for her, she had placed Horner's well being and safety on top of everything else. However, due to an unknown betrayal, the alliance was force to flee. They didn't fared much better during their second stop either. Dr. Narud, whom they met on Dead Man's Rock had revealed himself as Mengsk loyalist during their stay at the Prometheus space station. The alliance once again had to dig their way out. Hybrids, Mengsk's fleet and utter and complete betrayal were the order of the day. And at the end of it all, one Anabelle Thatcher, one of the Raider's ship engineer and Rory Swann protégé, had her life snuffed out. Not by the enemy, but by one Sarah Kerrigan. This was the fact that Frederick highlighted when Nova was brought to him.

"She woke up two hours ago," he said. "But until now, crying is the only thing she did."

The three of them were standing inside an observation room adjacent to the one Nova was in. All of them were watching Nova through a one way window built into one of the private ward's wall.

"Do you find any other medical conditions that we may need to give attention to, Frederick?" asked Horner.

Frederick shook his head. "Nope. Nada. Zilch. Physically she's completely healthy. I can't say the same for her psychology though. I'm not a shrink so I can't really tell. Aside from the incessant crying, she seems to be stable."

"Well in that case we better watch out, I mean really watch out for anything unexpected coming out from her. We were lucky that Valerian here managed to warn us just in time. If not, all of us won't be having this conversation," stated Horner.

Holding his data pad onto his chest, Frederick spoke, "Off the records, commander?"

"Go on," replied Horner. Horner flinched a bit every time someone else called him the commander. He was still uncomfortable with the new title, not to mention the new responsibilities he now carried on his shoulder. The death of his leader, friend and mentor shook him to the core.

Moving his eyes towards the lying figure inside the next room, Frederick said, "I'm not really keen in treating another psionically powerful patient."

"You had experience in treating psionically imbued patient before. Remember Sarah Kerrigan? We need someone with that experience to deal with Nova and you're the perfect candidate. I won't have it any other way, Frederick," Horner firmly stated.

Frederick sighed. "I just don't want another Annabelle Thatcher incident happens to me or my staff," he said. Frederick was clearly shaken by what he saw when the body of Annabelle was brought to him. Blood was still oozing out of her eyes, nose and ears, signaling that whatever inside her skull had turned into a goo, no doubt a work of a really powerful psionic. He still remembered of seeing Swann fell on his knees as the old engineer mourned the lost of someone he considered as his own daughter. He still remembered the tears that were flowing down Rawling's cheek as the later cradled the lifeless body of a woman he had fall deeply in love with. And it was all due to the very person he had once treated and saved her life with.

Horner went quiet. He realized and understood what the doctor had implied. He too still remembered everything that happened right after their escape from Prometheus station. Lots of lives were snuffed out on that day but Annabelle's death stood out from the rest. She was killed in a friendly fire, by someone whom they had bled so much trying to rescue from the clutches of the Zerg. When he thought back, Kerrigan and Nova's situation weren't really that different. Kerrigan had accidentally killed Annabelle when she was trying to protect Raynor and his parties from the onslaught of the hybrid and incoming Dominion reinforcements. Nova nearly killed them all as she grieved Raynor's death. She was also the main reason on why Raynor fell into Mengsk's hand earlier which in turn brought to the commander's death. He hated to admit it but the doctor had a strong point. Frederick had once saved the life of someone who's in turn brought more misery to them. That was probably one of the darkest and blackest points in his life and he was clearly not in the mood to add another. However there was also something that Nova did point out when they interrogated her earlier. Nova stated that she was sent to seek the Raiders by his former commander.

He knew that Jim Raynor when he was still alive would never put the life of everyone he cared about in jeopardy. Asking the most dangerous Dominion Ghost Operative to seek the Raiders would not be his move if he didn't trust Nova to an extent. He wasn't so sure whether Nova was telling the truth but reports from his men who captured her did indicate that Nova came in peace. She immediately surrendered the moment they cornered her and didn't give a fight at all when they cuffed her. Horner did ask her on why she didn't hail them before boarding the Hyperion. She replied to the effect that big chances are the Raiders would simply shoot her ship on sight the moment they knew it was her so it would be better to simply board the Hyperion and quickly surrendered herself to any available Raiders. At the very least she could still defended herself should she met any trigger happy Raiders who's life principle was to shoot first and asked questions later. She stated that the reason she came to them was to seek their help in rescuing Jim Raynor. Horner and Valerian refused to believe her at first, thinking that it could be a trap but Nova was adamant that betraying the Raiders wasn't what she intended to do. She dearly wanted to get Raynor back to her and firmly stated that she would do it alone if it wasn't for the current condition she was in at that point. Nova then narrated everything that happen from the moment she cornered Raynor inside the Umojan research station until her eventual escape from the Imperial Palace.

So right now it came down to choices. Each side had their own arguments and as the new leader of the Raiders, it was his job to make the decision. It was quite a few minutes later before Horner finally nailed down his choices and he knew Frederick and perhaps the majority of the Raiders may not like it.

"I still want you to treat her, Frederick. Treat her the best that you can," he finally spoke.

"What?!" exclaimed Frederick. "Are you out of your mind, captain?! Don't you realize what she did and what she could do?!"

"I realized everything, Frederick!" stated Horner firmly. "I realized all the danger that she could posed to us but you have to realize that it would be even more dangerous to let her go. The Dominion would come and claim her and before long, she would come to haunt us back. What do you think will happen then? We all saw what she could do. We all saw her potential. Giving her away to the enemy is something we couldn't afford to do. We need to keep her here and we're going to keep her safe!"

Frederick kept quiet. He was clearly surprised by Horner sudden outburst. It was quite a moment later before he finally spoke, "Very well. I shall do what I must."

"Good," replied Horner. "I know you have a lot of misgiving about her but trust me, this is the path that we should follow. Jim sent her to us so that she could be safe. He sent her to us so that she could help us. He sent her to us due to reasons only known to him. Everything that Jim told Nova to do was his last command while he was still alive and I'm not about to defy any of it. Nova is no longer Mengsk's, Frederick. Jim Raynor owns her now and like Kerrigan, she would only answer to him and him alone."

Frederick nodded, signaling that he understood what Horner was trying to relay. It wasn't five minutes later before he excused himself, stating that he had chores to do. But at the door, he suddenly turned towards Valerian and said, "You might want to know that I had done a thorough check on Nova's psionic potential. You might want to readjust the scale once you become the emperor."

"Why is that?" asked Valerian.

Ferderick turned his gaze towards Nova. "She's no longer a class ten psionic. Her power level is now much higher than before."

Valerian raised his golden eye brow when he heard Frederick last sentences. "Any theory on how it happens?" he asked.

Frederick shrugged. "I'm not sure. It could be due the grief she's now experiencing. That strong psionic outburst was the key indicator I think. I think what happened to the commander affected not only her emotions but her powers as well. You father better pray that he won't meet her head on. There won't be anything left of him if that happens." With that, Frederick walked out of the room.

Both Valerian and Horner turned their gaze towards the blonde woman inside the other room. For the moment, none of them spoke anything as they both sunk deep within each thought of their own.

"One good deed," Valerian finally broke the silence. "Only one good deed was enough to make a woman fall for him. I could never understand women."

Horner's lip curved to a smile. He too had trouble in trying to understand women. Valerian last sentences did invoke the memory between him and Mira Han. Despite his blatant show of disdain towards his accidental wife, Mira had shown nothing but deep affection towards him. Some part of him felt guilty of the way he treated that woman. But the other part of him still had difficulties in accepting his wife's job as the leader of one of the largest underworld organizations in Koprulu Sector. "Yeah, tell me about it. But if you must know, Jim always had the knack in attracting women's attention especially those psionically gifted ones even if he didn't want to. I could tell that Nova was already smitten by him when we first met her. She came to us, asking our help to subdue Gabriel Tosh. It's a pity she was still thoroughly loyal to the Dominion at that time or else all of these won't happen."

"Everything happened for a reason, commander. All we could do now is to make sure that Jim didn't die in vain. But I must stress that I'm a bit curious on how you're going to get Nova to listen to anything that you say. You mentioned back then that she would listen to no one but Jim."

"Yes I did mention that but what you must understand is if it's true that Jim really sent her to us, one of his instructions would require her to help us in any way she can. This in turn would mean that she would have to listen to everything that I say," replied Horner.

Valerian nodded. "Do you think she could be trusted?" he asked.

Horner sighed. "I think I could trust her enough to keep her end of the bargain. The loss of Jim nearly torn her apart. She will do everything within her power to avenge his death, that I'm sure of."

"You seem pretty confident of her," stated Valerian.

"To some extent. But I would still keep a sharp eye on her, just in case she decided to make a u turn."

"Good to see that you're still take precautions when dealing with something like this."

"I can't afford to lax, Valerian. In this business of ours, we can't afford any misstep that could spell disaster to every one of us. Anyway, we have been standing too long inside this room. Those medical staff could take care of Nova without our presences. I'm going to see Lars. It seems that he had something he badly wanted to show us."

* * *

Broken hearted.

That was what she felt at that point of time. It was as if a part of her had been taken away in an instance without ever having the chance to return.

Ever since she woke up in the private ward, she had done nothing but crying. Crying for someone she had lost. Weeping for her failure to rescue him. If only she could turn back the time. If only she had tried harder. If only…

Jim Raynor was once her enemy. She had taunted him. She had followed him wherever he went, waiting for the instruction from the emperor to put a bullet into Raynor's skull. She even betrayed him, thinking that her action was righteous. But Jim Raynor had shown nothing but empathy towards her. He had fiercely protected her during the raid at Tosh's headquarters and spectres research facility. He nearly died defending her from the hydralisk attack at the Umojan research facility. He spoke to her with kindness during their stay within the White Star holding cell en route to Korhal. He still cared for her well being even when she was forced by Mengsk to shoot him. How wrong she was when assuming what kind or person Raynor would be. But when she finally realized of how different Raynor was compared to what she heard from Mengsk, it was already too late. She had lost him.

For hours now she had buried her face into the pillow, sobbing and weeping. The feeling of remorse, sadness and loneliness crept into her heart. She can't remember the last time she had this kind of feeling. She can't remember when the last time she truly loved someone this deep. Sure there was Tosh but she only remembered a little bit about him. Most of it concern of how Tosh went rogue and went to finish off a few of her friends. Kath Toom's death stood out from the rest. She hated Tosh since then. Then there was Mal Kelerchian. He was a good and honorable man but the yawning gap within their age meant that Nova saw him as nothing more than a fatherly figure. Yes she did felt something towards him after she rescued him from Cole Bennet's clutches but that was just about it.

Suddenly she felt her shoulder was being touched, tenderly. She looked up and saw a dark haired woman smiling at her. From the look of it, Nova knew she was one of the medic tasked to watch over her. Slowly she buried her face back into her pillow in an attempt to ignore the medic.

"Nova?"

No reaction.

"Nova?" the medic began to gently shake Nova's shoulder. "I brought something. It's been a while since you eat anything."

With her face still buried within her pillow, Nova shook her head. She didn't want to eat. She only wanted Jim.

"You have to eat something. It's not good to keep your stomach empty for so long." The voice was tender. The owner of that voice seemed to care about her. But still she won't budge.

The medic was at lost on how to coax Nova to eat anything. Suddenly, she remembered what Doctor Frederick had told her before. Smiling a bit, she said, "Commander Horner wants you to have something. He forbids you from going hungry."

Nova's body stiffened as she heard what the medic had said. But it wasn't moments later before she finally got up and proceeded to sit on her bed. Even then she kept looking down towards her feet. She was still sobbing.

The medic then proceeded to place the food tray in front of Nova but not before she took a handkerchief and slowly wiped Nova's tears off her cheek.

"It's just something to keep you from going hungry. You shouldn't let your stomach going on empty. Eat," said the medic. She then went to sit beside Nova as she watched the Ghost operative began to eat.

"I'm Lily Preston. You can call me Lily," the medic said as her eyes continued to gaze at Nova. Nova simply kept quiet. She was clearly not in the mood to have any conversation with anyone.

"I'm not going to pretend to know how you feel, Nova," Lily continued. "Each one of us Raiders did lose someone we hold dear throughout our whole life. I guess it's just one of the perk of becoming a full time soldier."

Silence.

"I also won't pretend that Commander Raynor's death didn't shake us. He was our pillar of hope. He was someone all of us could cling on to. He was a great guy. He was just amazing," Lily continued. Her lips curved into a smile. Moments later however, that smile faltered. "He always had the knack of wiggling out of anything thrown into his way. It's just that it wasn't his luck this time."

Nova pushed away her half eaten toast. Without looking towards Lily, she slowly said, "I'm sorry. You must have hated me by now."

Lily shook her head. "I don't hate you. It may be difficult for me to accept your apology, but trust me when I say that I truly didn't hate you."

Nova turned her gaze towards Lily. She began to read Lily's mind and came away surprised that Lily was indeed being honest with her.

"Why?" that was all that came out of her mouth.

"What's done is done, Nova. There's no turning back. Hating you won't bring anything worthwhile and meaningful, at least for me. The only thing we can do is to look forward and learn from our past."

Nova continued to gaze at Lily. This was indeed something new to her. Someone else, someone she formerly considered as an enemy showing empathy towards her. At this point, she began to feel that Raynor's traits had somehow rubbed off onto each and every one of the Raiders. "Are all the other Raiders think like you?" she asked.

"Well I can't speak for the other Raiders. They might have way different opinion than mine. But what I can tell you is this. From what I saw, you had taken to like Commander Raynor. You had strong feeling for him and truth to be told, I rather have you than that former Queen of Blades. But now Jim Raynor had died. You can do something for us out of that. You can help us to avenge Jim Raynor in any way you can. That was all I'm asking."

Nova went silent. She continued to ponder on what Lily had said. The more she thought about it, the more she realized the truth behind every sentence spoken out by Lily.

Lily is right, she thought to herself. Mopping around won't bring Jim back to her but she could avenge his death. And she was determined to see it through no matter the cost.

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: First of all, I would like to say thank you to those who had taken the time to review my fic. Ragnarok, TehDark Templar, Detroit Red Wings, Restored PPtC, a1993, O.o and guest (he didn't put his name), you know who you are.**

**I'm going to take TehDark Templar advice on having a beta reader of my own. So any takers? My update schedule can be quite erratic so** **if it okay with any of you, we could be good friends.**

**Anyway, this chapter was kinda a bit emo for me. This is where I'm delving deeper into Nova's emotion and the start of what the Raiders saw out of everything that had happened.**

**Finally to O.o, Yeah! I've murdered Jim Raynor!Bwarghahahahahaha! Ain't I an evil SOB!**


	10. Chapter 10

**We were never meant to be – 4**

The Hyperion repairing effort had so far gone well. Being a much older Confederacy era design, parts for the Behemoth class battle cruiser were aplenty. The Kel-Morian engineers were also well verse in the ship's whole design which means that repairing schedule had gone ahead of schedule. Not only that, they even managed to upgrade various parts of the ship, essentially the weaponry and the main power reactor within the timeframe set. Some of the parts installed were a much higher specs than the original, others were simply the Kel-Morian own design. The same situation couldn't be said to the Bucephalus. Being a much more recent design, the repairing effort was hampered by the lack of spare parts and the knowledge of the ship grand design. The Bucephalus technical crew had so far resisted any attempt by the Kel Morian engineers to study the ship, much to the Kel-Morian chagrin. They had only allowed the Kel-Morian to work on the ship's weaponry but not more than that. While the Bucephalus technical crews were more than capable to repair the ship on their own, the Kel-Morian docking yard wasn't specifically design to handle a Gorgon-class battle cruiser, further adding to the problem. Horner did raise that issue with Valerian, citing that it's very important for them to finished fixing all of their ships in time, that allowing the Kel-Morian a much larger access to the ship will help speed up things. Valerian was however adamant that he couldn't risk allowing those who weren't friendly with the Dominion access to their military technology.

From the window of Bergstrom's office, the three of them – Bergstrom, Horner and Valerian – could observe multiple sparks and welding flashes as the repair works continued in earnest. The Bucephalus repair work was only done on critical parts where as on Hyperion, a major reworking was underway. The three fusion reactors, two for powering up the ship and one for the Yamato cannon, had its major overhaul underway and scheduled to finish within six hours. Once that done, all three reactors would receive their supply of fresh deuterium fuel cells, required for the fusion process. Once refueled, twelve hours will be needed to power up the reactor and to check for any instability issues. Once cleared, all those reactors will be subjected to a string of reliability runs. It would take about forty-eight hours before all those reactors were certified as healthy which would mean that including resupplying everything else, the Raiders fleet could only departed in not lesser than three to four days. But the view of the ships under repair wasn't what they were interested to see at that time.

"Kalos, Oasis and Bhekar Ro," Bergstrom pointed to the star chart now displayed on the main monitors inside his office. "These three worlds suddenly went silent about a week ago. No communications, no nothing," he added.

"What interest do these worlds hold to you?" enquired Horner. "All of them are considered fringe worlds, I mean really fringe worlds. Bhekar Ro for example was only rediscovered three years ago. That colony was considered lost ever since we arrived here from Earth."

"I do know about Bhekar Ro," interrupted Valerian. "That planet is located exactly at the edge of the Koprulu Sector. My father held a special interest on that planet years ago. It was at that time that the lost colony was discovered. They were cut off from everyone else ever since the human arrived here from Earth. A Xel Naga temple located there suddenly became active and its psionic siren called in every Protoss and Zerg to that planet. Situations were really ugly for that colony at that time."

"Right," said an annoyed Bergstrom. "Well, thanks for the history and geography lessons, Prince Valerian but that's not what I'm trying to pull your interest into. See, in about nine days ago we sent shipments of minerals, neo-steel and vespene gas towards these three worlds. We lost all of them."

"You mean they never arrived?" asked Horner.

"As a matter in fact they did arrived. We're just never heard from any of them after that," replied Bergstrom. "We tried to contact our liaisons, virtually anybody that we know of from those worlds. None reply. Prior to your arrival, we've sent a scouting fleet to Kalos to investigate. This, "said Bergstrom as he pointed to the newly emerged image on the main monitor, "is what they sent back a few hours ago." And both Valerian and Horner gasped at what they saw.

Kalos was a bluish watery planet with basically the same size and density with Earth. It had five continents surrounded by six oceans and unlike Earth, both its North and South Pole were mainly consisted of ice rather than land mass. Lush green forest covered sixty percent of the available land mass and the mostly temperate climate making it the most ideal planet for colonization. However the image now in front of them told a different story.

Kalos appeared to have lost all of it atmosphere and from the close up image, they can saw a really huge gash ran across the crustal plate of that planet from north-west region towards the southern pole of that planet. There were also none of the once huge oceans that gave that planet its distinctive color any space farer saw from outer space. That planet was literally dead.

Valerian and Horner both were left speechless at what they saw.

"Bad isn't it?" muttered Bergstrom. "There's more. Now these images here are from Bhekar Ro and Oasis."

Those images showed that Bhekar Ro was split apart along its equator while Oasis looked like it had frontal accident with another planet.

"I have seen and experienced a lot of crazy things but never something like this. Any explanation on how those planets came to be like that, Lars?" asked Horner.

"You mean natural and logical explanations? No. No explanation. We were basically puzzled by what we saw ourselves. But one thing I could tell you is this. Those planets were destroyed by something. It happened about a week ago after we lost contact with all whom we know from those planets. Kalos, Bhekar Ro and Oasis systems are located right next to each other and basically they were pretty much stable star systems," replied Bergstrom.

"Well maybe they're not as stable as you might think, Lars," reasoned Horner.

Bergstrom shook his head. "They're still stable, Matt. Main star output, gravity and planetary orbits path are all stable. We detected no planet destroying asteroids within the vicinity and you may want to explain on what made that huge gash on Kalos. That wasn't made by a mere meteorite."

"Look Lars, unless you're suggesting that someone did have enough firepower to do that kind of damage, naturally occurring phenomena would be the only explanation appropriate at this point," argued Horner.

"I knew you're going to say that. There's one thing I haven't told you. Our long range sensors detected extremely strong psionic emission radiating from this region," Bergstrom pointed towards the monitor, now showing an image of clusters of stars with huge void in the middle of them. "We've detected those emissions coming from this huge hole within the star clusters in about a week ago right when all communications with those three planets went down. There wasn't any emission prior to that and all those planets lied directly within its path. Even until now those psionic emissions still exist and got stronger by the minutes."

Horner and Valerian looked towards each other. Perhaps he thought that Valerian might be thinking the same thing, Horner asked him, "Do you think she's behind all of these?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure if she's really that powerful enough to cause that kind of devastation or capable enough to produce that kind of emission. But we may have pinpoint on why the sudden increase in Nova's psionic abilities," replied Valerian.

"You're sure about that? You saw what Kerrigan capable of on Prometheus. We couldn't put a dent on that single hybrid on Castanar using everything that we got and yet she managed to take two hybrids with her own bare hands."

Valerian turned to face Horner. "Commander, Kerrigan might be powerful but I doubt she's capable of destroying planets and produce that kind of psionic emission. Besides, it does appear that these emissions come from deep space. Why would she go there? This is something else, something that beyond our knowledge and understanding. If I have to guess, it could be the fallen Xel Naga."

"Fallen Xel Naga?" exclaimed Bergstrom. What's a Xel Naga?"

And Valerian had to lay out everything that he knew including the prophecy to Bergstrom for a good twenty minute later.

"I know it's difficult to believe everything that I've told you, Mr. Bergstrom but you saw in front of your eyes all the proof. This Fallen One was rumored to have the ability to destroy worlds and he was prophesized to return."

Bergstrom went to sit on his chair and stretched out. These last few days really had taken a toll on him and he wasn't in the mood for more. "This Xel Naga had everything to do the Protoss and the Zerg right? I don't think we need to worry about someone else affair. Let them handle this problem. For all I know, this Fallen One might do us a favor by destroying those Protoss and Zerg. Hell, we could just sit back, relax and enjoy the show."

"Do you really know what the Fallen One was thinking?! Do anyone of us knew?!" asked Valerian, exasperated. "Yes the Fallen One had everything to do with the Zerg and the Protoss but it doesn't mean that he will stop at them! For all we know, we could be very much present as the same target as everyone else! Those planets weren't belong to the Protoss and the Zerg, Mr. Bergstrom. They belong to us and all of them were destroyed just the same."

"Alright-alright, you made your point," replied Bergstrom while putting up his hands as a sign of defeat. "But what you want us to do? If this thing is really that powerful, we may not stand a chance no matter how well we prepared."

"All the same, Mr. Bergstrom, just be prepared. We're still trying to work out on how to handle that situation. I just hope that the Kel-Morian would be willing to put aside any differences when the time comes."

"Work with the Dominion?" exclaimed Bergstrom. "We did that once before and look how it turns out. We're not going to fall for that. Not anymore. Especially when dealing with something as vague as this-, prophecy of yours."

"The Dominion has just as much to lose as everyone else, Mr. Bergstrom. This is no longer about seeking power. This is about the survival of our kind. Our species. My father may had done a lot of wrong doings but that doesn't mean that everyone had to bear all his sins," replied Valerian calmly.

"Your father did say the same old bullshit before. Never expected his son would repeat the same old sentences."

"It will be repeated as long as I'm still breathing, Mr. Bergstrom. I'm not forcing the Kel-Morian to do anything that I said but I hope it won't be too late for any of us to do right thing in the end."

"Valerian," interrupted Horner whom all this while remained silent as he watched the exchange between Valerian and Bergstrom. "We're down to just a few battle cruisers, I'm sure I don't have to remind you of that fact. The way you were talking, it was as if you got a huge army behind your back."

Valerian smiled. "As a matter in fact I did have an army. Once we departed, I want to seek Warfield."

* * *

Later that day, a memorial service in remembrance of Jim Raynor was held at the Kel-Morian administrative main hall, Moria City. Much to Horner surprise, General Mah-Sakai had offered him a place for him to hold that ceremony. The General along with all the other Kel-Morian dignitaries attended the ceremony. With the exception of a few Raiders and Valerian's crew whom on duty to guard the battle cruisers, virtually everyone else went down to planet surface. Nova and Valerian were the only ones who had to contend on watching the ceremony through the main monitor at Hyperion bridge. Under Bergstrom's advice, they both had to stay on the ship or else risk unnecessary problems with the Kel-Morian authority.

A huge altar was erected at the center of the hall based. Right in the middle of the Altar, surrounded by hundreds of candles was a giant portrait of Jim Raynor. A lot of guests, among them were Rory Swann, Lily Preston, Travis Rawling, Everett Vaughn and few others can be seen taking their seats in the huge hall. Commander Horner, General Mah-Sakai and many other Kel-Morian elites walked in as the hall began to fill up. The ceremony will be done in a traditional Kel-Morian way.

Nova remained seated as she watched the ceremony in progress. She could see many teary eyes. Even some of the dignitaries weren't spared as Raynor did at least once save their lives, or at least their loved ones. Raynor's deed certainly had touched many people, even to those who seem to be a bunch of thugs or gangsters. Just as the priest finished with his ritual, Horner stepped up to the podium and began his eulogy:-

**For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt Horner and Jim Raynor was my commander and forever, my best friend.**

**He lived a life that was full of pride, joy, and happiness. A former farm boy, a Confederacy marines, a Marshall and finally the leader of the Raynor Raiders. ********Often we forget that those who are the happiest in life also hide their pain the best. As happy as he seemed, he was no exception. ****We never got to tell Jim just how important he was to us, although I know in my heart he felt it.**

**We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance.**

**When I sat down to write this speech, there were so many beautiful things that I wanted to say about Jim that I didn't know where to start. None of us have had easy lives by any means, but this is by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do. ****Although incredibly difficult, this reminds me not to feel sorrow for his death, but instead to feel grateful that his presence had blessed our lives. We are all better people today because he was part of it.**

**Jim was not only beautiful on the outside. He had a beautiful soul. He saw the beauty in others, always taking his time to form his own thoughts and opinions about the people and things around him. ****I know there is something that he found to love in every one of us. **

**When I first found out about his death I found myself asking: "Why? Why him? Why not take the lives of others who's only bent towards the destruction of others? Why took away all the good and honest people such as Jim?" Then I remembered that death and living wasn't within the powers of anyone of us and I reminded myself that he no longer has to endure the pain of this world. We all must find peace knowing that he is still a light in our hearts.**

**Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.** **I feel like we still had so much left to teach one another and so many more inside jokes to create. ****I had always thought I'd be able to see him achieved whatever it was he wanted to achieved but alas. ****We must remind ourselves that when we look for him, we can look to the stars at night and we can look into the eyes and hearts of everyone here and find a little piece of him.** **In that sense he will live on forever in our hearts.**

**I am honored to be his friend and his second in command.**

**Jim, your life with us will always be remembered. You have been the perfect gentleman to everyone you came across. They'll always remember you for the different things you are to them. It is painful to lose you now, Jim but God knows what's best. We wish you farewell.**

**I will leave you with these last thought.**

**Tell people you love them more times than you think they should hear it, especially if you think they already know. ****Learn to appreciate the good times, because you never know when they will be your last good memories of some one.**

Nova's tears fell like a rain on summer's eve. That was the most touching words she had ever heard ever since her existence in this world. She also saw Horner wiped his eyes with a hanky as he stepped down from the podium. There wasn't any clapping, only tears and weeping. Valerian also stood in somber as he continued to watch and so did all who converged on the bridge to watch the proceeding.

What have I done, she thought to herself. She already knew that Raynor wasn't what Mengsk had always told her before but she never knew the amount of love the others had for him. He was their beacon and their hope. He was their candle who had spent his days lighting up the others while he himself burnt.

All that thoughts had only caused her feeling to Raynor grew even stronger but she knew there was nothing she could do. She had killed the only person who cared for her. She had killed the person whom she felt deeply in love with. And she will pay the price for what she did.

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: Just so you know thing is going to get a bit slow for the next few chapters so I hope you guys could stick with me for the time being. And I thank you to Ragnarok, chipmunkfanantic, LightRayPearlShipper, timberwolf1337, Pandorasbox12, and TehDarkTemplar for their reviews and ideas. Also to those who followed and favorited this story, thank you. As always, please read and review. I really appreciate it. Thanks.**


	11. Chapter 11

**We were never meant to be – 5**

It had been nearly thirty six hours after Jim Raynor's funeral service concluded. Every Raiders and Valerian's men had return to their respective ship continuing what they were supposed to do, fixing the ship and get the hell out of the Kel-Morian space. While the Kel-Morian did have a sizeable army, they were no match to what the Dominion had especially when the Dominion had the new mammoth sized combat walker called the Odin at their disposal. The rebels knew it would be in the matter of time before the Dominion finds them again. Despite the Kel-Morian assurance that the Raiders would be safe with them, Horner felt it would be better not to misuse the Kel-Morian sympathy towards them and to avoid any necessary conflict that would caused lives.

Another twelve hours to go before the battle cruisers quartet scheduled to depart from Moria orbital ship yard and it had been three hours since Lily Preston gave Nova a thumbs up. She was now certified healthy and free to go where she pleased, on the Hyperion of course. Horner went to the med bay to pick her up and brought her to her quarters. Nova did requested that she would be placed in the same quarters with Lily, stating that she felt comfortable with the medic. Horner turned down that request, citing that Lily already had roommates and she needed to be isolated. Besides, as a strong telepath, the isolation will shield her from cacophony of thoughts that she will have to endure if she ever got close to anyone else. Commander Horner's reasoning was solid though. Even when she was still in the service of the Dominion, she will always get a room only for her and away from everyone else. It was indeed looked like that thing didn't change a bit with the Raiders with only one exception. She never thought that she will get to stay in Raynor's quarters.

Nova tried to argue. She stated that after everything that happened, it wasn't her place to be allowed to stay inside the deceased commander's quarters. That room was supposed to be Horner's. Horner declined, stating he was more comfortable inside his old quarters.

"Please, commander. There's got to be another vacant quarters in which I could stay," begged Nova.

"Nova, this ship had already being filled to the brink. We hardly had enough room for everyone and since you're a Ghost operative, you cannot share. Am I clear on that?"

"But why here? Why this quarters? The other Raiders won't be happy if they knew of this arrangement," stated Nova. That was indeed what worried her.

"Because this is the only quarters that's available to you, Nova and it is my wish that it's to be made as a place for you to stay. You will need all the peace of mind you can get and I don't want to jeopardize the only Ghost operative that I have. I will take care of the other Raiders," stated Horner firmly.

"The only?"

"Yes, the only. All of them were killed during the invasion on Char and we can only produce so much. You may have provided us with all the details and technology but without enough psionically able candidates, there's only so few we can produce. Now I want you to get in there and get comfortable. Report to the bridge within an hour, do I make myself clear?"

Nova quickly gave Horner a salute." "Crystal, sir."

* * *

Simple. Pure and simple. That was the only description Nova could give To Raynor's quarters. Aside from a bunk bed, a steel wardrobe, a steel chair and desk, there wasn't pretty much anything else. It was indeed a far cry from what she used to see inside every Dominion's battle cruiser she ever rode in. Even her own private quarters was far larger than this.

Nova slowly sat on the bunk bed as her brilliant green eyes scoured every nook and cranny that made up that room. It was exactly what a soldier's quarters looked like which basically explained what kind of person Raynor was. He was a soldier through and through. No luxuries to be spoken of which further cemented the view that Raynor wasn't a power hungry commander as what the Dominion's media had portrayed him all this while. Nova's mind began to flashback to the moment the first time she saw the rebel commander with her own eyes.

She admitted that Raynor was a good looking guy. He looked rugged and battle hardened indeed. However behind that fascia, Nova felt there was indeed something else that made him different. His eyes. They betrayed the softness that lurked inside him.

She was looking for Tosh at that time. Her big break came when she managed to intercept a communication that originated from somewhere within fringe space of the terran ruled sector, more accurately from a planet called Redstone. It was from Tosh. However, there was nothing she could do at that point. She was indeed planned to assault that planet if it wasn't for the fact that Tosh was contacting the Raiders. Nova knew that any assault could mean that her target could easily slip away. The Raiders was known to have the knack to keep themselves well hidden. So she had spent the next few days tracking the Hyperion. It was only after a few days later that she finally knew what Tosh's master plan was. His target all along was in fact the New Folsom. It was at this time she decided to announce herself to the Raiders and tried to persuade Raynor to change his mind about Tosh.

Nova knew that the Raiders will benefit more by helping Tosh. He already an army now imprisoned inside New Folsom. Liberating them would mean that the Raiders could have an immediate access to quite a deadly army that could cause huge trouble to the Dominion. The so-called Spectres had once proved their worth by nearly toppling the Dominion once. If it wasn't for Tosh changing his mind at the very last moment, the Emperor would no longer be breathing. Nova at that time could only offered the Raiders on the knowledge of Ghost training. Nothing more. While what she shared was indeed complete, as what Commander Horner had mentioned, finding suitable candidates to be trained could pose some problem. However for some reason, Raynor chose her and forfeited all the advantage he would have had if he chose Tosh.

Working with Raynor was indeed a revelation. Despite knowing that Nova was Mengsk's pet Ghost, Raynor took really good care of her and if her own perception didn't fooled her, it would seem to her that Raynor seemed afraid to lose her. It was indeed that kind of gesture that made her immediately warmed up to him, that she started to call him by his first name throughout the duration of that mission.

Her stomach suddenly growled. It had been hours before she had her last meal. Thinking that she had been inside her Ghost suit long enough, she decided to take a shower. She took a clean towel folded neatly on the bunk bed and began to undress. She then stepped into the shower and began to revel at comfort of warm water flowing down her toned body. That shower lasted about fifteen minutes later. She stepped out of the shower and began to dry herself with the same towel. Once done, she threw that towel on to the bed. Standing naked in front of a mirror, she began to admire her own features.

From her early days in the Ghost Academy, Nova was the object of lust and jealousy among the recruits. She was really tall and all her features were well proportioned. Not too big and not too small. Her fair complexion, long blonde hair, slender legs and brilliant emerald eyes completed the package. She was more suited as a super model rather than a deadly assassin.

Reminding herself that she had an appointment with the mess hall and later the Hyperion bridge, she began to raid Raynor's wardrobe in a desperate attempt to find something suitable to wear. Nova's wardrobe raiding ended as someone suddenly knocked on the quarters door. Quickly wrapping herself with a towel, Nova proceeded to open the door. Standing in front of her was Lily. She was carrying neatly folded clothing in her hands.

"I thought you may need something to wear so I brought this," said Lily.

"Thank you," replied Nova. "I really didn't have anything else to wear at the moment. Jim's clothes were obviously too large for me to wear. Well, come in."

Lily stepped over the threshold and placed the clothes she brought onto the desk. "Well this is basically what I could come up with, Nova. It's a mix collection what the Hyperion female crews had and willing to share with you. Mind you that all of us aren't as tall as you so you may need to carefully choose what you want to wear."

Nova smiled as she gingerly picked the mixture of shirts, pants and dress one by one. It wasn't moments later that she finally decided to settle on a pair of sleeveless black shirt and a khaki trouser.

Lily went silent as she watched Nova dressed up. She had to admit that Nova was indeed a beauty. That shirt and trouser were a simple affair but she looked absolutely ravishing in it.

"So how do I look?" asked Nova just as she finished. That shirt and trouser was a little bit short but nevertheless fitted her nicely. Her long blonde hair for this once wasn't tied up in pony tail. Instead Nova simply let it fell over her shoulder.

"Beautiful."

"Thanks."

"Okay. Well since you're good to go, I better get back to my station," said Lily as she stepped out of the room.

"Wait!"

Lily stopped at the entrance looked at Nova with utmost curiosity. "What is it, Nova?"

"Urm, can you accompany me to the mess hall? I am kinda hungry," asked a hopeful Nova.

Lily looked at her wrist watch. "Well, I have about twenty minutes before my shift starts so sure why not. I could grab a couple of drinks by then."

* * *

Apart from the traffic grinded to a halt every time she walked passed by, the journey towards the mess hall was uneventful. Nova remained composed and purposely ignored every gawking the men gave her. She was well trained for that. The only thing that she found hard to do was to filter out every thought that she received unintentionally and it was getting harder ever since that incident on the bridge. Nova herself wondered on what truly happened to her. Lily once told her that she nearly destroyed the whole battle cruiser if it wasn't for the quick reaction by Prince Valerian.

"Okay so here we are," said Lily as she walked into the mess hall. "The holiest place of all the locations within the Hyperion. It's not that difficult to find it yourself. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon enough. Now let's get you something to eat, Nova. Nova?" Lily suddenly realized she was speaking to herself. Nova obviously didn't follow her into the mess hall. Lily quickly went back to the entrance and found Nova simply stood there. Her face was a bit pale.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"I-, I can't go inside."

"Why not?"

"There's so many people inside. I-, I can't go."

Lily was curious. It seemed to her that Nova wasn't herself at that time. She didn't display any traits usually associated with Ghost operatives. But time was running short. She needed to be at her station in fifteen minutes time and Nova need to haul her ass towards the bridge. Lily then proceeded to take hold of Nova's hand and began to comfort her. "Look I understand how you feel but you still hadn't a proper meal ever since you got onto this ship. Come, Nova. I'll take you inside."

Nova hesitated a moment before she let Lily towed her.

The mess hall was usually a crowded and apart from the main thrusters room, was the loudest of all the locations within the Hyperion. However, all that noise went down that day as Nova, accompanied by Lily, walked into the hall.

Both girls ignored the stares they received from the other occupants. They went straight towards the food counter and after Nova finished picking up things she wanted to eat, went to sit at the table the furthest from the counter.

The sickening silences went on and on. Sitting with her back facing everyone else, Nova calmly attend to her meal, trying hard to ignore all the sickening thoughts she received from the rest of the Raiders and to some extent, Valerian's men. She knew that she was being watched. More than once she heard the word kill and murderer coming out from someone's thought every now and then. Lily, upon seeing how tense Nova was kept on chanting, "Just ignore them. Just ignore them."

It wasn't for a moment later before Nova sensed someone was walking towards them and stood directly behind her.

"I see you got a new girlfriend, Lily. What was her name again?"

Lily sighed. "Jack, don't start."

The man named Jack was unmoved. "What? I didn't start anything, did I? Nah I'm just here to remind you of whom you are sitting with right now, just in case if you forgot."

"There's no need to remind me, Jack. Now why don't you leave us alone alright? We don't want any trouble."

"Trouble? She's already caused more than enough trouble, Lily! She's the main reason on why the commander's dead!"

Lily stood up. "Jack, back off if you know what's good for you!"

Jack snorted. "You're just a medic, Lily. It ain't your place to give me orders! And you!" Jack's hand was about to touch Nova's shoulder when it happened.

It was too fast. Nobody saw how it happened. Jack who was about to grab Nova's shoulder suddenly ended sprawling on the floor with Nova sat squarely on his back. He was groaning in pain as Nova continued to twist his arm. His buddies quickly went to his aid. One of them tried to punch Nova on her face but Nova was too quick for him. She quickly released Jack's arm, did a quick summersault and landed a kick right at his back, sending him headlong towards the rows of table in front of him. The other attackers weren't lucky either. She darted here and there while delivering blow after blow towards her attackers. She spun, she leaped, she kicked and she punched. The way Nova moved was as if she was doing a ballet. Beautiful while at the same time dangerous and before long all her assailants lied on the floor, groaning with pain. Luckily, no one died. And at the center of it all, stood Nova. Some of her mane covered her face. She was breathing hard.

Lily tentatively walked towards Nova. She didn't know whether or not it was safe to get close to the Ghost operative but she knew she had to do something to calm Nova down.

"Nova?"

Nova didn't respond at first but moments later she began to sway. Lily quickly caught her and brought her towards the nearest chair.

"You alright?" asked Lily.

Nova could only nod. She was clearly exhausted.

"Yeah I better bring you to the med bay for further check up," said Lily as she began to put Nova's arm around her shoulder and tried to lift her up.

Nova shook her head. "No, I have to get to the bridge."

"No you're not," replied Lily firmly. "You're not well."

"But-," Nova tried to argue.

"No buts! You will follow what the medic told you to do!" a familiar voice suddenly cut her off. It was Horner, looking sternly at her.

Commander Horner obviously got the report of the brawl within the mess hall. He was standing all along at the entrance of the mess hall watching everything. He then turned his attention towards Nova's attackers. "Get yourself patch up at the infirmary. Go!"

"Sir?"

"What is it Jack?"

Jack whose nose was broken when he hit the opposite wall after being kicked at the back by Nova spoke, "Of the record sir?"

"Go on."

"You must be out of your mind letting this bitch join our ranks! She's not fit to be a Raiders, sir."

"I have my own reason on why I'm letting her in, Jack."

"What reason?!" exclaimed Jack. "She sold Commander Raynor to the Dominion! He helped her with her Tosh problem and she betrayed him! Do you really need further proof than that?!"

"And you're suspecting that she will betray us by then?" asked Horner. Not once his eyes left that of Jack. "If she truly wanted to betray us, she would have done it already. She wouldn't have come here all alone when she knew the type of welcome she would be receiving."

"She was just fooling you, commander! And all of us! She was simply bidding her time!"

"And to do what?" asked Horner. "Why would she resort to elaborate maneuver when there are much more easier path for her to follow? She already had all of our move within her grasp, Jack. She only needs to relay all of that to the emperor and we would be finished by then. Even the Kel-Morian won't be able to stand a chance against the Dominion. Besides, Jim Raynor was the one who told her to seek us."

"She told you that, sir? And you trust her?"

"Jim trusted her and so do I."

"That is bull shit!" shouted Jack.

"You can call it whatever you like, Jack. But there are reasons on why things happened. Yes she sold Commander Raynor to the Dominion but that was also one of the reasons why she came to us. Commander Raynor's intended to not letting her returned to the Dominion and that is also what I'm intending to do."

"Then why not just kill her and be done with it? That way nobody could own her by then!"

Horner suddenly became stern. He slowly walked towards Jack and with his face just inches away from him, he softly spoke, "You will not touch her. You will not kill her. Do I make myself clear? If you don't like what I have decided, you can pack you bag and leave."

Jack stared at his commander for quite some time. It wasn't until a few minutes later before he replied, "I'm staying, sir."

"If that is your choice, then I suggest you haul your ass to the infirmary right now and I don't want to hear anymore of this, do you understand me?"

Jack said nothing. He simply saluted Horner and walked out of mess hall towards the med bay. The other injured Raiders also followed suit. Horner then turned his attention towards Lily.

"Lily, bring Nova back to her quarters. See to it that she receive treatments if necessary."

"Yes, sir."

"And Nova?"

"Sir?" replied Nova.

"We'll be heading out within a few hours time. I want you at the bridge when that happens. As of now, you will stay inside your quarters. Lily will be assign to take care of you."

Nova simply nodded. "Understood sir."

Commander Horner then turned around and proceeded towards the Hyperion Bridge.

* * *

_**Five hours later…**_

After nearly a week stay at the Kel-Morian orbital shipping yard, the fleet of four battle cruisers finally heads out.

Their destination, Char.

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: Finally, chapter 11. I have to admit it was written in a rush so please forgive me for any mistakes that might happened. As always, please read and review.**


	12. Chapter 12

**We were never meant to be – 6**

_**Hyperion bridge, three hours after departure from Moria…**_

Commander Matt Horner gazed intently at the holographic image in front of him. Three dimensional laser light constructed what was to be the image of Planet Char with various other details around it. However those details displayed weren't the latest information about that volcanic planet. It was the last of what the Hyperion's sensors could gather before they had to depart in a hurry.

The four battle cruisers strong fleet was warping at a third of the usual warp speed. The decision to warp at much slower speed was made by Horner against Valerian's protest. Valerian wanted to get there as fast as possible while Horner didn't want their arrival to attract attention. Warping at a much slower speed will reduce the amount of warp signature generated detectable by arrays of sensor nets implanted by the Dominion military throughout the Dominion controlled space. Every ship generated its own signature and Hyperion's warp signature was the one most sought after by the Dominion.

Horner had misgivings on going back to Char. They had lots of near misses and casualties right after the invasion was concluded and he wasn't looking forward for another. The images of battle cruisers being blown up in space, bodies strewn everywhere and the image of hybrids rampaging throughout the Prometheus space station were still playing inside his mind, as if it happened only a few hours ago. Somehow, like nearly always, Valerian managed to persuade him and Horner can't help but think that the prince did have a point in seeking Warfield.

Due to that broadcast, Mengsk's position was now much stronger than before, even stronger than it was before the Raiders own broadcast on Korhal not a few weeks ago. The Zerg were in disarray and the supposed threat to the Dominion, Jim Raynor that was, was put to the rest. All the Raiders' effort in undermining Mengsk had been undone. They were back to square one and with Mengsk gaining stronger support from his subjects, things were going to be a lot more difficult for them.

The bridge door suddenly opened to reveal Prince Valerian. Holding two cups of coffee in his hands, he proceeded towards Horner and handed him a cup. Voicing thanks, Horner took a sip and continued to observe the holographic image in front of him.

"You woke up early," said Valerian.

"Yeah."

"How many hours of sleep do you get?"

"Not much."

"You should really consider getting proper hours of sleep, commander. We don't want the fact that you didn't get enough rest gets in the way of making proper decisions," stated Valerian.

"I'll be fine," replied Horner. "I'm used to it. Besides, the idea of going back to the very place that could pose extreme danger to us kept me awake all the time."

"I understand your concerns commander, but this is something we need to do."

Horner turned to face Valerian. "Are you sure that he will listen to whatever it is you want to say? Are you sure that he will join us?"

"I'm sure of it," replied Valerian as he continued to sip his coffee.

"Well I don't share your optimism."

"I'm not asking for any of that, commander. What I need is simply your agreement to allow me to do things might help us in the end."

"I do give that agreement, Valerian. If I don't, we won't be heading back to Char. But what if he turns his back on us the moment he sees us? He is still under your father's employment in case you forget."

Valerian sighed. He put down his cup and stared at the holographic image in front of him. The image of Char and its various details burnt into his retina. From the Dominion communications they intercept not long ago, they knew General Warfield was tasked to defend Char and eradicate all the Zerg creatures on it. They had yet known whether or not the Dominion star fleet was still patrolling the area surrounding the planet. That was something they would only knew once they get there. Valerian knew the danger it could posed to them but he felt that there was no other way. Right now it was important for him to make Horner understood. "General Warfield wasn't the first general I've approached when I come up with the idea of invading Char."

"He wasn't the first?"

Valerian nodded. "Yes. He wasn't the first. I need a military leader who would be willing to do things that deemed impossible. Things like attacking the Zerg on their home turf and come out victorious was one of them. The willingness to work with the Raiders that they won't rat out what we're going to do to my father was another. Warfield came out top."

"Figures. He is so far the only general that can be reason with," said Horner. "So you flat out told him that you were planning to invade Char and you were planning to work with us?"

"I told him that I'm going to Char. I told him that I have the very thing that could subdue the Queen of Blades and all we need was to get that thing near enough to Kerrigan so that we can blast her with it. About working with the Raiders, I've only told him half an hour before we first met. He was quite unhinged for a few minutes after that. I have to tell him a little bit of a background story of what happened between Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan. I told him that if anybody who could get close to Kerrigan, that would be Jim. He was skeptical at first but he relented afterwards."

"That explained the early animosity. But he did turn out to be a nice guy later on especially after Jim saved his butt. Still, it doesn't explain on why he was silent all this while when we had that cosmic chase with your father."

"We will only know when we get there and yes he was grateful for the rescue. That rescue did change a lot of things commander, and not just to Warfield. Every man and woman who worked under Warfield saw what the Raiders are truly made of. They finally knew that all of you weren't what my father had portrayed all these while."

"But he's only one general, Valerian. The others won't be like him. Even Warfield look down to Jim the first time he saw him."

Valerian shook his head. "On the contrary commander, there are quite a lot of military leaders who aren't satisfied with my father. Not all of them can be considered as nothing more than a puppet of my father though."

"If they are really not satisfied with the emperor, then why don't they do something about it? Why let him hold on to power?"

"Because there is nothing else that could take the place of the Dominion so far. Yes they could plan a coup and a general by the name of Cole Bennet did try once. He failed. My father maybe ruthless, commander but even you can't deny the fact that he did keep things in check and well ordered."

"The Dominion was built on the blood of the innocence, Valerian."

"That I don't deny but there's nothing we can do about it for the moment. Believe me commander, that there are generals who believe of what the Raiders had broadcast on Korhal is true and it so happens they're aligned with me. General Warfield is one of them."

"So Warfield isn't the only card you have? You know your father's latest broadcast could change everything," argued Horner.

"Yes he isn't the only card I have and no, that broadcast won't change anything. You forget that it's the military leaders who truly knew the true situation of our war with the Zerg. Yes there would be a few bad eggs who would rather stick with my father but rest assures that there are also who could still manage to see the truth. Our first step to reach out to them and General Warfield would be the first."

"Very well, Valerian. We'll do it your way but I hope you know what you're doing. There's too many variables that we need to consider of and there's nothing solid so far that we could hold on to."

"I am now a fugitive like the rest of the Raiders, commander. I fought with Raiders and I defy my father several times. Big chances are that my father would have revoked my claim to the throne but it won't matter now. That would be the main reason for me to know what I'm doing and what I'm planning to do. I can't back away from my responsibility, not after everything that happened and I had promise myself to see it through until the end," said Valerian.

* * *

_**Nova's quarters...**_

"So, do you ever have a boyfriend?"

Nova's spoon stopped midway as she heard what Lily had asked her. Both of them were having a quiet dinner in Jim Raynor's, now Nova's quarters.

"No. No boyfriend," replied Nova as she resumed eating her dinner.

"You're kidding, right?" asked Lily, her eye brow raised. "A pretty girl like you got no boyfriend?"

Nova shook her head. "I'm not kidding, Lily. I really don't have a boyfriend or-, ever has one."

Lily chuckled. "I seriously doubt that. I think you do have a boyfriend at least once. You just forgot all about it. You know, memory wipe?"

"I really don't think so. My profession doesn't allow me to have emotional connection with anyone especially men. It would be, what you call, a distraction that prevents us from giving our best in what we did. That's what they told me anyway. We could face disciplinary action if the top brass finds out."

"Well, you really need to consider changing your profession, Nova. You don't want to die old and alone. At the very least, there must someone you're attracted to. So I take it that you're still a virgin?" asked Lily.

Nova's eyes widen as she heard what Lily was asking her. "You must be really bored to have this kind of conversation, Lily."

"Yeah I'm bored," admitted Lily. "So you're still a virgin?"

"Does it really matter?" asked Nova exasperated and embarrassed at the same time.

Lily cupped her hand to her mouth. "So you are a virgin! Wait till the guys hear about this! We got a supermodel virgin on board the Hyperion!"

"Lily!"

Lily laughed so hard that it took quite a while for her to regain her composure. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she said, "Sorry-, I'm sorry. Don't worry Nova, I won't tell. You will have to fortify the door if they knew about this. There are a lot of lonely men out there."

Nova scoffed. "They won't find me an easy prey. I won't allow just anyone touches me."

"Really? Not even Jim Raynor?"

Nova's face fell as she heard that name.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that," said Lily as she saw Nova's reaction. "I understand your feeling, Nova."

Nova simply kept quiet.

Lily continued, "But you know what, I have a feeling that he may still be alive."

"How can he still be alive?" asked Nova softly. "The emperor killed him. Why would the emperor lie?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. Just my gut feeling I guess. Besides, you did nail it down right there. The emperor is always a liar, Nova."

"But what if he was telling the truth this time? Emperor Mengsk always wanted to kill Jim. Why would he lie about it?"

"Beats me. Jim was always a survivor, Nova. Something tells me that he might still be alive somewhere out there. At least that's what I hope for."

Nova stared at Lily. Not a moment ago, when they were still at Moria, Lily was convinced that Raynor was no more. "I still remember about you saying that Jim was unlucky this time despite beating the odds many times before. Why the sudden optimism?"

"I guess, maybe I was simply hoping that he is still alive. That maybe, just maybe, the emperor simply locked him away somewhere and Jim simply bidding his own time, trying desperately to escape when the time is right."

Nova nodded. Deep inside, she was hoping for that too. If Raynor was indeed still alive, she will give him the tightest hug and the biggest kiss ever, her life principles be damn. Feeling that it's time to talk about something less depressing, she asked, "You seem to know pretty well about Jack. Did something happen between both of you?"

"Who wouldn't know their own brother," came the reply.

"Your brother?" exclaimed Nova.

"Yeah. He's a Preston alright. You have to forgive him, Nova. Jim Raynor's death hit him really hard. He was like a father figure to Jack."

"There must be a story behind it," said Nova.

"Yeah well, both of us grew up on Tarsonis. My dad worked as an engineer at one of the Tygore Industries factories there and my mom was a housewife. We did have a good life there, at least until the Zerg came raining down upon us one day. Jack and I were at school that time. We were suddenly ushered by the military towards one of the safety bunkers when the attack happens." Lily sighed. Her eyes looked distanced, as if she was trying to remember memories long ago. "That morning before we went to school was the last time we ever saw mom and dad. We never heard anything from them ever since. We managed to flee the planet by then. Our first stop was the Confederacy staging outpost on Meinhoff. From there, we were separated from the other children. Some of them went to other planets. Jack and I stayed on Meinhoff. Life was hard back then. Swann took us in, giving us food, water and a roof above our head. Jack decided to learn on how to become a prospector. I got lucky. I get to learn to be a medic. Things went smoothly at first until Kel-Morian decided to intervene. It went ugly from there. If it wasn't for the Raiders, we won't be alive. And it all happened because of one man."

"Emperor Mengsk. So both of you owe the Raiders," stated Nova.

"Yeah, especially Jack. Jim personally saved him from being killed by a Kel-Morian marines so you could see on why he took it personally when he heard the news. Jim had saved him but he couldn't do anything to save Jim in return."

"Jack isn't the only one, Lily."

"I know. All of us owe Jim in one way or another. That is why we still uphold his ideals even after his death."

Both of them stayed silent, buried deep within their own thought before suddenly Nova's communicator went off.

"Nova?" Horner's voice was heard through the communicator. "Report to the bridge at once."

"On my way, commander," replied Nova. She then turned to look at Lily. "I guess we may have arrived."

Lily nodded. "Yeah I think so. Well I better get to my station. See you later, Nova."

"Okay."

* * *

_**Hyperion bridge...**_

The Raiders fleet emerged from warp two million miles from Char. From there, the fleet continued its journey towards that volcanic planet using conventional drive. Commander Horner's plan was to use one of Char's twin moons, Eris and Ate, far sides as a cover for their arrival. It took them nearly two hours to arrive at their designated location. Once arrived, Horner parked the fleet behind Eris and by using the moon as some kind of a barrier, began to scan the area for any hostile presences, be it from the Dominion or the Zerg.

"That's odd," he said. "I thought we would have seen significant Dominion presences by now."

Valerian went to his side and began to observe the holographic image in front of him. "Commander, is it just me or are we seeing more debris circling that planet?"

Horner began to push a few buttons on the holographic table console. "The sensors are fine. We're not seeing any equipment induced noise so what you saw is definitely debris and there's a lot more of them this time. It appears to be consists of a mixture metals and organics."

"Dead battle cruisers and dead Zerg," commented Valerian.

"Dead battle cruisers yes. Dead Zerg? Maybe not. They can fly in space, remember?"

Valerian reach out towards the holographic image and began to turn it clockwise and counter clockwise, up and down, left and right. One upshot from Nova's sudden psionic blast the other day was that the Raiders gets to change every instrument damaged by that incident and by luck the Kel-Morian did have at that time a few much more modern equipments at their disposal. Horner was basically thrilled the first time he saw the new holographic table. Unlike the old one, it allowed the user to manipulate the image directly without having to depend on an array of buttons.

"Well," Valerian spoke. "The way the organic debris move don't indicate any sign of self propelling so I think it's safe to say that they're dead. " He then turned towards Nova who was standing not far from the table. "Nova, I need you to check for me any electronic activity aside from ours that exist in this area. Communications, scanners, anything."

Nova nodded and quickly went towards one of the consoles on the bridge and began to work. The bridge officers sitting there quickly gave her a wide berth. It appeared that they were still wary of her, perhaps due to her reputation.

"It's far too quiet, Valerian. I don't like this at all," muttered Horner.

"I share your sentiment, commander."

"Prince Valerian," called out Nova. "Electronic activities are virtually non existent. Everything is quiet."

"Now I really don't like it," said Horner. "Alright, we've been hiding here for far too long. Let's get out there and see for ourselves what had happened."

Five minutes later the fleet moved out of Eris's shadows. Valerian and Horner were particularly dumbstruck by what they saw.

When they left Char in a hurry, there were far lesser debris and the majority of them converged within location so-called debris spot orbiting the planet here and there. But now, the planet's whole orbit between its atmosphere and the moons was practically covered with debris.

Valerian let out a low whistle. "Not unlike an asteroid field."

"Yeah," replied Horner. "Something bad must have happen here. Adjutant, scan the planet surface for any activities, both terran and Zerg."

"Scanning," came the reply. "Scanner indicates zero terran activities on the planet surface. However, large Zerg presences are being detected on the surface. Detail analysis shows that they are well organized."

Valerian and Horner looked towards each other. Zerg being well organized was what they were never expecting post Char invasion and always a bad news. "We need to get out of here," said Horner. Clearly, he was very worried. When they left Char, most of the surviving Zerg were literally feral. Being organized meant that something had happened at the top of their hierarchy.

"Agreed but after we take a look at what happen to Warfield's base," replied Valerian.

"We're sitting ducks here, Valerian. The Zerg could attack us anytime soon and you want to go down there?"

"I'm not saying that we should go down there. This ship had the long range camera, right? We can take a snapshot from the orbit."

"Fine," replied Horner. He began to punch a few buttons and moments later, an image appeared on the main monitor. Warfield's base was completely destroyed and millions of Zergs were swarming all over it.

Valerian was speechless.

"Satisfied?" Horner then turned towards the helmsman. "Notify all ships. Prepare to make the jump on my command."

"Yes sir."

However, just moments before the jump was made, crackling voices came in through the ship communicator. "To anyone out there, anyone-, we need help-, … drifted-…,"

"Quick! Clean up the signal!" instructed Horner. He then spoke into the communicator, "This is Commander Horner from the Hyperion. Give us your location."

"Captain Horner of the Raiders?" the voice sounded surprised. "Thank God you're here. I'm Lieutenant Harrison under the command of General Warfield. We've fought together on Char."

"Yes I remember. What's your status?"

"Very bad. We barely managed to escape the Zerg attacks. We've been drifting for hours before you show up."

"Can you fly to our location?" asked Horner.

"We can't. We only have enough energy for the life support system and that just it."

"Very well. Transmit you coordinates, Lieutenant. We'll come and get you."

* * *

_**Hyperion med bay...**_

Half an hour later, all three drifting shuttles were finally secured within the Hyperion's hangar. They were lucky that throughout the rescue mission, the Zerg remained on the planet surface. Nova and a group of medics including Lily were there to assist with those who were injured. All three hundreds wounded soldiers were then brought to the med bay for further treatment. The fleet entered warp the moment the rescue succeeded.

Valerian and Horner stood beside Lieutenant John Harrison, who was lying on the bed, listening to his account of what had happened on Char.

"It was the Queen of Blades," he said. "She's the one who lead the assault on our base. She was unstoppable at that time. If it wasn't for General Warfield's command for evacuation, there won't be any survivors."

"Only three hundreds people manage to escape? That doesn't seem much," said Valerian. "Did General Warfield only give out the command at the very last minute?"

"You got me there sir," replied Harrison. "Yes he only gave the instruction the moment our command center was breached. I saw General Warfield changes in attitude the moment the Zerg break into our base. This was no longer about defending the planet against the Zerg. To him, this had become personal. To my believe sir, I think he was disappointed."

"About losing the base?" asked Valerian.

"I don't think so, sir. I think this goes way back then. He already knew that we will lose the battle. My guess is he was simply trying to send a message to the Queen of Blades."

"What message?"

"I have no idea, sir. By the way, is it true sir?"

"About what?"

"Jim Raynor?"

"You don't trust your emperor?"

"It's hard to decide what to trust nowadays. General Warfield seemed to believe that Jim Raynor is dead. He was devastated back then. He holds high respect for the commander. He confronted the emperor the moment he knew the emperor was chasing the Raiders. The emperor threatens him and the rest of us with the charge of high treason if the general won't shut his mouth. General Warfield relented and this is what we get."

"I see," replied Valerian. "Well you better get some rest, lieutenant. You and the rest of your crew. We'll have all of you sort out later once everyone okay."

"Thank you, sir."

Valerian and Horner then walked back to the bridge. Both of them were silent at first, buried deep within each thought.

"Well at least we know on what Warfield stood upon. It's a pity we didn't arrive in time," spoke Valerian the moment they arrived on the bridge.

"Actually we were lucky," replied Horner. "Had we arrived there in time, we'll receive the same fate as Warfield and his men."

Valerian said nothing as there was indeed a lot of truth in what Horner had said.

* * *

_**Nova's quarters…**_

It was quite an exhausting day for the blonde Ghost. Handling three hundreds wounded men and women was no easy task, not to mention that she never had the experience in dealing with that kind of thing before. The soldiers' attitude weren't helping either. They knew Nova. They feared her. They were so reluctant in receiving Nova's helping hand when she approached them. Once again her reputation preceded her.

Nova immediately threw herself to bed and drifted off to sleep the moment she entered her room. It wasn't until two hours later that she suddenly woke up. Uneasiness crept within her heart. She sensed something but so far unable to pin down the nature of it. Still lying on the bed that smelled very much of the one Jim Raynor, her eyes wandered around. The room was dark with the exception a small night light illuminating it.

Nova slowly got up and sat at the edge of the bed. Once again that feeling reared its ugly head. Massaging her knees, she turned her eyes towards the only window available. She could only saw starlight whizzing by as they were still in warp. Nova didn't ask Horner on what their next destination would be but she was pretty sure the commander will chose somewhere safe for them to hide.

That uneasiness feeling enveloped her even more. She tried to remember when the last time she felt that way. Her time on Tarsonis. The Gutter. The Ghost Academy. All her missions until the last one at the Umojan Research outpost.

"The research outpost!" she exclaimed. That was the last time she felt the same feeling she had right now.

Nova quickly darted to the door and sprinted towards the bridge. The commander must know this. The fleet was being followed.

* * *

The huge Leviathan was flying directly behind the Raiders fleet. In the Leviathan bridge stood a female figure sporting glowing purplish eyes and sharp claws. Bony wings protruded from her back and tendrils took over what supposed to be long red hair on her head.

"Izsha, hail the Hyperion. They must know about Jim."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: Finally chapter 12. To TehDarkTemplar, I know I promised to send you excerpts for you to beta read on. I'll send you chapter 13 onwards. I need to put out this chapter by Sunday Malaysian time as I'm planning for a short hiatus after this. And I also like to thank you for those who had taken the trouble to pm me, reviewed, followed and favorite this fic. To Ragnarok, our discussion was really valuable and I hope it will continue. As always, please read and review. The more review I get may speed up the next chapter posting after the two weeks hiatus ****.**


	13. Chapter 13

**We were never meant to be – 7**

_**Flashback**_

Her glowing eyes were transfixed on the huge Behemoth class battle cruiser now dominating the screen. It had been only two weeks ago since she last set foot on the Hyperion. That memory wasn't a happy one. She went with the hope that Raynor was waiting for her on that ship, how disappointedshe was when she found out that Raynor never got out of the research lab. Blinded by rage, she lashed out at the focal point of her anger; Valerian. She knew all along that she shouldn't have trusted him with Raynor's life. He was a Mengsk and anybody that bears the Mengsk family name, from her point of view, can never be trusted. Her rage clouded her judgment that she deliberately prevented the Raider's fleet from fleeing as they suddenly came under heavy attack from Mengsk's armada. If it wasn't for Horner's determination not to bow to her demand, Valerian and to some extent the Raiders would have been wiped out. She then decided to abandon the Raiders. Ignoring Horner's plea, she began to set course of her own.

Many things had occurred since then; things that she could have never forseen. Kaldir, the planet which she began retaking the Swarm, _her _Swarm. On Char she gained her lieutenant, Zagara, quite possibly the most ruthless and powerful individual next to herself. Finally, Zerus… There, she regained complete and total control of the Zerg, gaining vast amounts of power, becoming much more powerful than the old Queen of Blades ever was. But of course, that power came at a price; she was now, once again, the Queen of Blades.

Anger, broken hearted and the feeling of loss were what fueled her when she was on that planet. She didn't want to care about what Zeratul had said. She didn't want to give a damn about that old Protoss prophecy. All she could think of was to gather as much power as possible; determined to claim all Zerus had to offer, she bathed inside the very first spawning pool, the one that birthed the very first Zerg. This, like all of her other endeavors, came with high risk high reward, but she was willing to undergo the transformation and once again become the Queen of Blades if it meant she could avenge Jim's death. She came out was hell-bent on revenge, ready to assault Korhal with the entirety of the Zerg Swarm and to lay waste to Mengsk's throne of lies and deceit. But then… but then… the old bastard made a rather personal call. He never failed to catch her off guard.

She was skeptical at first, believing that the Emperor might have lied to her, it wouldn't have been the first time. But as she thought over his threat, several questions came up. Why would he lie? This wasn't a situation that the Emperor could just bluff his way out of. The old man was shrewd and farsighted; no doubt he hid a whole deck of cards up his sleeve just in case something like this ever did happen again. And that insurance policy just happened to be the life of a very precious Jim Raynor. Mengsk knew Jim Raynor was her only weakness. He would have seen it all during their time serving together, fighting against the Confederacy. During the Brood War, when Raynor had first encountered her infested state, she had merely told him to leave her alone. And during their repeated encounters, she never physically assaulted him, always singling him out for mercy. And if that bastard Mengsk had any more lingering doubts, they were now surely dispelled. After all, Raynor had moved Heaven and Earth to get _her _back. And now he preyed upon that weakness.

The feelings of disbelief, hate, self-loathing, and helplessness all mixed together to form a nigh explosive amount of emotions. She wanted to scream. She simply wanted to die. All these powers she now had came to nothing. Those powers meant nothing if she lost _him _of all people. And it all started with the decision she made aboard the Hyperion.

If only she had listened to Horner. If only she hadn't journeyed into Zerg space. If only she hadn't took control of them. If only she hadn't gone to Zerus. Jim was right. She was always a soldier, she was never a leader. She knew how take orders but never how to make decisions. She was a brilliant tactician but it was always shone brightest when she executed her orders. He was right about her, and she never realized that until now.

She still remembered the moment she returned to humanity. She should have rejoiced upon being deinfested; she should have been happy that she would finally be free from that nightmare. And yet she felt none of that. Instead, she felt angry. Her rage spiraled out of control, were it not for her weakened condition at the time, she would have killed all those around her. Including Jim. She truly hated him at the time, hated him for freeing her and for forgiving her of all the nightmarish things she did. All of the killing and slaughtering the Zerg had done under her name, under her command, her will. Not for a moment had she felt any peace.

So she ignored Raynor despite all of his efforts to comfort her, to alleviate her emotional trauma. She didn't want to give a damn about Raynor. Until the Dominion took Jim from her. It was on Prometheus Station that she finally saw what Raynor was truly made of. Despite the cold treatment he received from her, he was more than willing to sacrifice himself to keep her alive. He forsook his sense of self-preservation and immediately decided to deal with the twin hybrids, just because he thought her life was worth more than his. It was a fool's gamble of course. If it wasn't for her timely arrival, Raynor would have been slaughtered. But despite the old spark that reignited in her heart, she once again felt resentment the moment she got a whiff that she would be handed over to Valerian's scientist. But she agreed to it anyway, just for Jim.

Those two weeks at the research station were enough to make her hatred grew once more. Being subjected to scientific prodding every now and then didn't help her mood. The fact that it was run by the son of someone who had wronged her before had fanned the flames of her hatred even more. And by the time Raynor went back to her, she decided to ignore him once again**.**

"_**I moved heaven and earth to get you back, Sarah! I can't watch you throw that away just for revenge!"**_

"_**I never give up on you, Sarah! Don't you give up on us!" **_

Those words softened her heart a little bit; they made her think of what Raynor wanted from her and in return, what _she_ really wanted. But all of the resentment, all of the anger she felt towards Jim, towards _everyone_, it all... faded once she heard of his execution.

She had underestimated Raynor's importance to her. She had ignored the effect he had on her, on her life, but the news of his execution changed all that. She had once again descended into the depths of hell, taking the title of Queen of Blades, even reverting to her animalistic form, if only to avenge his death.

But now that sneaky son of a bitch had him. This couldn't stand; every moment Jim spent in the clutches of that manipulating monster was moment that she was away from him.

She couldn't live without him. He was her angel and he had always been a part of her, even from the moment she first laid her eyes on him.

Her train of thought was broken.

"The Raiders have accepted our hail, my Queen," said Izsha waking her up from her deep thought.

Kerrigan nodded as the image of Horner and Valerian appeared above the holographic table in front of her.

_This is it_, she thought to herself. She didn't think about what Horner or Valerian would say about her… appearance. All she could think of was Raynor, she was too worried for him. Or rather, about what he would say once about her once she rescued him.

But she couldn't think of that now, Jim was in danger.

She had been separated from him twice now. And she could quite possibly be separated from him again. Probably forever.

_**Flashback ends…**_

* * *

Nova ran as fast as her feet could carry her. As she approached the elevator, she saw there was already quite a sizeable queue lined up for their turn in the contraption. Without thinking, she psionically pushed them all away and quickly darted into the elevator just as it arrived.

"Sorry!" That was all she could say to before the elevator door closed.

The journey towards the bridge seemed to take hours.

"Come on! Come on! Come on!" she mumbled impatiently, repeatedly pressing the "bridge" button, wiling it to go faster. After what seemed to be forever, the elevator finally stopped and she quickly made her way down the hall, barging into the bridge.

"Sir-," she was unable to finish her sentences as she was suddenly shoved to the side by Horner. Horner signaled her to remain silent and to stay away from the main monitor. Nova was irritated by his unusually rough treatment, until she saw _who _was on the main monitor.

Her jaw nearly dropped; it was the Queen of Blades, and dominating the view of the front screen in front of the bridge was a gigantic space monster.

"Jim is alive and I can't find him," said Kerrigan, "but you can. Hack the Dominion network and figure out where they're holding him."

Valerian turned towards Horner. His expression clearly indicated that he was suspicious of Kerrigan's- the Queen of Blade's true intentions.

"How can we trust her?" he hissed.

"Valerian," Horner replied. "If there is even a chance that Jim is alive, I'm going after him."

"Hacking the Dominion security network will prove difficult," argued Valerian.

"Only one man can hack that network, Colonel Orlan. And he's being held prisoner by Mira Han."

"The mercenary leader?" exclaimed Valerian. He was indeed surprised. He met Mira Han not long ago when the Raiders took shelter on her planet**.** He got a whiff of how fond Mira Han was of Horner. The only thing he didn't know was the extent of their relationship."Isn't she a friend of yours?"

Horner began to fidget; he was clearly uncomfortable with the rather touchy subject of this "Mira Han"character.

"Not… exactly," he replied. "It's… complicated. Let's just get this done."

"Find him, Matt. We both owe it to him." Kerrigan immediately signed off after that. Moments later, the Hyperion began to vibrate a little. From the view port they could see the huge organic spaceship begin to heave and slowly increase its speed. Moments later, the ship was gone, warping towards an unknown destination, but not before Kerrigan sent a message to Horner telling him that she would make contact soon.

Silence reigned throughout the bridge. The news that Kerrigan brought had certainly surprised everyone within the bridge. Not more than a week ago all of them wept for Raynor, and yet right now each and every one of them was so elated with the prospect of getting back their commander, that they seemed to forget about Kerrigan's total make over. All of them including Nova.

"You know, commander," Valerian was the first who broke the silence. "I could use that eulogy of yours at my funeral."

"Shut up, Valerian!" Horner replied, rather embarrassed. Hundreds of people had attended Raynor's funeral that day, and most of them were the Kel-Morian VIPs. He wondered what they would say when they heard that Jim Raynor was still alive. Well, the only thing he could do was blame General Mah-Sakai for insisting that Raynor's funeral be made as large as possible. But for now, that couldn't be his main priority.

Horner walked straight towards the main communication console. Pressing a few buttons, he activated both the Hyperion ship wide public address system and the communication to the other ships within the fleet.

Composing himself, he began to speak, "Fellow Raiders, this is Commander Horner. I have an announcement to make. We have just received news that Commander Jim Raynor is still alive and at this moment is being held hostage by the Dominion." Horner paused for a bit, trying to formulate his racing thoughts into comprehensible sentences. He then took a deep breath before continuing, "Now I know it that it may be hard to believe at first, but we have every reason to believe that this information is legitimate. Because of that, I believe it is our duty as a member of the Raynor Raiders to rescue the very man who had founded this organization. We have not yet discovered where he is being held, but we are doing everything we can to locate him. Make no mistake that this mission will be an extremely dangerous as Jim is most likely now held deep within our enemy's territory. As always, all of you will be given a choice. If you are still a firm believer in the cause we are fighting for, you know what your choice will be. And for those who do not, we will drop you off at the nearest star port so that you can continue on with your life. We won't think any less of you. Jim Raynor blessed our lives once. I just hope that he can bless it again. Thank you."

"I'm in," Nova spoke suddenly. Firm determination was plastered across her face. "I will ride with the Raiders until Jim is rescued, and for however long it takes until Mengsk it taken down."

Horner smiled. "I knew you would."

"We're in, sir," the bridge helmsman voiced out. "All of us here on the bridge."

"Well said, Commander," said Valerian. "Looks like whatever God above is smiling upon us. Let's do this."

* * *

_**Hyperion's armory…**_

It had been two hours since Commander Horner's announcement. Much to Nova's surprise, none of the Raiders, including the Ex-Dominion soldiers, backed out from the upcoming rescue mission. Everyone was determined to get the old commander back. It was odd for her. The fleet consisted of two different organizations, but throughout her stay, not once she had felt that way. It felt just like a one big happy family. Yes, there was undoubtedly some friction between the two factions when they first united, but the hostile feelings had evidently faded away, with relationships, real relationships, being formed. It was all so foreign, yet familiar.

The fleet was now in full warp speed towards their next destination: Dead Man's Rock. Their purpose was to retrieve one Colonel Orlan, currently held prisoner by one of the most dangerous Terran mercenary bands in the Koprulu Sector, Mira Han. Based on what Horner had told her, Nova had a feeling that picking up Orlan shouldn't be all that difficult.

Colonel Orlan wasn't a stranger to Nova. There was a reason on why Nova was the best terminal hacker that ever came out of a Dominion Ghost Academy. She was once Colonel Orlan's prodigy. Colonel Orlan himself was a Confederate military officer before he changed his allegiance to the was the one who designed the Dominion data network that became the backbone of Mengsk's communications network. However, during his time at the academy, he became disenchanted with the Dominion. Rumors stated that he was a victim of a workplace political ploy; his career's progress was, essentially, destroyed by one of his rivals. Orlan since then decided to quit and became a mercenary himself, founding Orlan's Mercenaries. He tried to persuade Nova to join him but ultimately failed due to Nova's staunch loyalty to the Dominion.

Orlan's mercenary activities had caused quite a problem within the Dominion. Every now and then the Dominion network would be infiltrated by Orlan. Personal records, military, economic and financial data were his ultimate targets, and they were sold to the highest bidders. It wasn't until some of the Dominion's high brass residences were broke into and its occupants were murdered that Mengsk finally put Orlan on the top of the Dominion hit list, temporarily displacing Raynor's name on it. The one who was tasked to hunt down and kill Orlan was none other than Nova. However due to the increased threat posed by the Raynor's Raiders, she was reassigned to Raynor.

Nova had revealed to Horner and Valerian her past history with Orlan. Horner and Valerian then decided that it would be she who would lead the boarding party that was tasked to retrieve Orlan from Mira Han's clutches. The eventual reunion would be interesting.

The Hyperion's armory was bustling with activity. Nova herself was preoccupied with reassembling her sniper rifle. She doubted she would need to use it, but then anything could happen the moment they entered Mira Han's den. She knew it wasn't for nothing that Horner tasked her to lead the boarding party.

"That's a cool rifle you got there."

A gruff voice woke up Nova from her mindless cleaning. She turned around and saw the ship's resident engineer, Rory Swann was watching her.

"Yes it is," replied Nova who at the same time turned her attention back to her rifle. "It's gotten me out of a few pinches."

"I wonder how many innocent lives it had taken," said Swann as his eyes wandered towards the unfinished rifle held by Nova. "Sorry," he added when he saw Nova's face fell.

"It's fine." It was to be expected of course. On the whole, the Raiders still displayed an acute distrust of the former Dominion Ghost. Until she gained their absolute trust, she would have to endure every insult, intentional or not, thrown her way.

Swann then walked up to her side, placing his good hand on a nearby crate and leaning on it. Nova at that point decided to ignore him. She may be a hardened Ghost operative, but insults could still do a number on her.

"You know, Annabelle would always use this table to do her job," said Swann. "She was a good kid and a great engineer."

"And she was killed by Sarah Kerrigan," Nova stated, readjusting her optics.

Swann's eyebrows quirked upwards amusedly. "You read my thoughts?"

"It's hard not to. You're practically yelling each and every thought you have at me."

"You know, a lot of us consider mind reading as an invasion to personal privacy."

"Look," Nova quickly turned towards Swann, her jaw set and her eyes cold. "It's like getting locked into a small room with someone speaking to you with a megaphone. There is practically no way you can stop listening to him unless you either shoot him or shoot yourself. "

Silence fell upon both of them as Nova resumed assembling her rifle. Each of them, was either busy or simply drown in deep thought.

"A lot of us question whether or not Kerrigan told us the truth about Jim," said Swann, finally deciding to break the silence.

"You're one of them?" Nova spoke in clipped, measured tones.

"Nope," replied Swann. "I believe her."

"Why?" Nova raised her head, cocking it to the side.

"Kerrigan may be a mass murderer and a manipulator to boot, but one thing I do know is that she would never lie about Jim."

Nova froze momentarily, her body still going through the motions of cleaning and assembling her rifle, her telepathic ability picking up on the things he left unsaid.

"You're saying that they have a history together." That wasn't a question.

"Yeah, and that old cowboy never forgives himself for what had happened to her."

"What?!" Nova raised her head, her eyes blazing and her pony tail whipping about. "Why would he feel that way? Whatever she did I think was her own choice! Didn't any of you ever tried to make him see?"

"We did," replied Swann. "He just didn't want to accept it."

"But-"

"Yeah, I know. And I believe that's where you come in."

"I don't understand."

"Matt told me you and Kerrigan-, the human Kerrigan, share a lot of similarities. If what the kid said is true, then you are the only one who can get to Jim. Truth is we're counting on you to bring that cowboy back. You're the only one who could save him from himself.I hope you won't shy away. I wouldn't ask you if I thought anyone else could get the job done."

"No!" Nova quickly interjected. "I'll do it. It's the least I can do for him."

Swann nodded in satisfaction. "Thanks." He then turned around and began to walk away. Just as he reached the armory's entrance, he stopped and called out to Nova, "I'll tell the guys to go easy on you. No more insults or any of that stuff."

Nova allowed a small smile and nodded in response.

That was a short conversation but that conversation explained it all. She now understood everything. Raynor loved Kerrigan. She wasn't sure if the feeling was mutual, but it didn't matter. Raynor needed to be saved, and she would be the one who saved him. He deserved better.

* * *

_**Dead Man's Rock, two hours later…**_

Matt sighed heavily, rubbing his creased brow with a gloved hand.

Things had just gotten much more difficult for the Raiders. Mira Han, much to Horner and Valerian surprise, refused to release Orlan to them. She firmly held her ground, stating in no uncertain terms that she would _only_ release Orlan to her customer, Jim Raynor. How ironic.

"Is there no way to bypass them?" Valerian inquired, tracing a gloved finger over the intricate design of the table.

Horner shook his head and sighed. "No. I may not like it, but the only thing we can do is to pry her hands open and snatch the Colonel. It feels wrong, especially after all the help she gave us."

"We have no other choice. The clock is ticking, Commander. If Jim Raynor is still truly alive, his life hangs precariously in the balance. Kerrigan may make a move that could frighten my father into forcing his hand. Highly unlikely, but it is still a very distinct possibility."

"So we must try and retrieve the Colonel as quickly as possible. We need to grab her attention, force her to meet our demands," stated Horner.

"And I know just the way to do it," said Valerian. He began to press a few buttons on the holographic table. A holographic image of an asteroid field appeared above the table. "We could destroy her operation in this asteroid field. That would certainly get her attention."

Using his fingers, Horner then enlarged the holographic image until an image of a stationary space station appeared. "See that? That is the "brain" of her operations in this area; also probably the location in which she holds Orlan." Horner paused, leaning onto the table with both hands, "You know she won't make it easy on us."

"She has already made our life difficult, Commander."

"You're right. We'll do it. I'll alert the boarding party and have them on standby. They'll need heavier firepower, just in case Mira still wants to deny us Orlan."

"I just hope that she won't kill him before we get to him."

"She won't. Only Jim has that power."

* * *

_**Mira Han's stationary space station, Dead Man's Rock outlying asteroid fields, three hour later…**_

It was a relatively short and ugly fight, but despite the overwhelming numbers Mira Han possessed, the Raiders still came out on top. It was to be expected of course. Mira's Merc was only a group of mercenary who only had experience in small skirmishes compared to the Raider which essentially consisted of battle hardened warriors. Mira Han finally conceded defeat, though much to Horner's chagrin, she had admitted to the Commander that her feelings to him just got stronger.

Nova and the rest of the boarding party were waiting for the shuttle promised by Mira in the Hyperion's hangar. Valerian and Horner were also present, accompanied by several armored marines. From afar, they saw a shuttle bearing Mira's insignia fly closer and closer. It then entered the hangar and landed right in front of them, its ramp being lowered to reveal Colonel Orlan, a few marines, and Mira Han herself.

Mira Han quickly walked down the ramp, proceeded towards Horner and gave him a tight hug. "My dear husband. It feels so good to be able to hug you once again," she muttered into his chest.

"Ahh…" said Valerian as he finally understood the Mira–Horner puzzle. All around him, sniggers and a few whistles broke the silence, causing an already embarrassed Matt Horner to redden further.

Colonel Orlan, escorted by Mira's men, walked towards Valerian and Horner. However, just as he arrived in front of them, his eyes widened as he saw who was standing beside Horner.

"Nova!" he exclaimed.

"Orlan," Nova calmly replied.

"I should have known. This is all your doing, isn't it?"

"Just this once, the answer is a no. It was him," replied Nova while at the same time pointed towards Horner.

"And how are you involved in all of this?" asked Orlan.

"I work for him," stated Nova.

"So you finally quit the Dominion, eh? I told you that the Dominion was good for nothing. You should have come to me the moment you quit. Why didn't you?" he asked.

"I may have quit the Dominion, but that doesn't mean that I wanted to join you, Orlan. We have different ways of seeing things. We're not compatible," answered Nova.

"After everything I did for you in the academy, this is how you repay me?"

"Would you still have chosen me as your prodigy if I didn't work hard for it?" asked Nova. "Would you have even cared at all about me if I was just a lowly recruit who was somehow forced to join the academy?"

"No," replied Orlan. "I admit that you're one of a kind. I never saw any other recruits as spirited as you. But it still didn't change the fact that I had helped you."

"The only reason you "helped" me was because you were paid to do it. It's that simple." Nova stated firmly.

Orlan simply stared at Nova in utter disbelief.

It was at that point that Valerian walked in between them. Turning to Nova he said, "Nova, escort Colonel Orlan to the holding cell. Take some of the men with you, have them take shifts over his cell. You can get some rest once you're done." Valerian then turned to look towards Horner who was still locked in an awkward embrace with Mira, his arms trapped at his sides. "I think that our Commander is going to be a bit busy for a while, so you may have a couple of hours to yourself. I'll alert you when you're needed on the bridge."

Nova nodded. She then beckoned for Orlan and the marines to follow her towards the brig. Once Orlan was settled and the shifts were established, she proceeded towards the med bay. It had been a while since she last saw Lily. With all the chaotic commotion that had been going on recently, it was going to be quite a chat.

* * *

_**Hyperion bridge, three hours later…**_

"Matt!" exclaimed Bergstrom. "It's been a while. You look tired. Anything I should worry about?"

"No there's nothing to worry about, Lars, "replied Matt, shuddering as he recalled Mira's wild side. "I'm just a bit busy."

"Uhuh," Bergstrom nodded. "You know the last time I saw you like this was after you came out of your wife's honeymoon. Mira something was it? You should really spend more time with her, woman like that kind of man. Poor woman must be scared to death over your heroics."

"Look, Lars there is a reason on why I'm calling you back," Horner cut into his friend's speech, grimacing as he thought over the prospect of spending _more _time with Mira.

"Yeah, I know. You need my help with something. What is it this time?"

"Well… Let's just say that Jim needs a bit of rescuing himself this time."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: Finally! Out of the blue I came back. But first of all I would like to extend my gratitude to my beta reader 'TehDarkTemplar' (I hope he won't mind now that I mentioned his name) for the help and not to mention all those pointers/suggestions on how to improve my writing. Also to Ragnarok666 for all the brainstorming that we had. And finally to all of you who had taken the trouble to review, favorited and followed this fic, thank you. Anyway, here's chapter 13 and like always, please read and review and I'll see you soon.**


	14. Chapter 14

**We were never meant to be – 8**

_**Hyperion Bridge…**_

From the monitor, Bergstrom simply stared at Horner in disbelieve.

"You're fucking with me, right? Jim is still alive and now he's in the Dominion custody?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's what our informer told us, Lars. That's why we're going to need your help to find him," replied Horner.

"Who?"

"Pardon?"

"Who's your informer?"

Horner shook his head. "As of now I can't tell you but we have every reason to believe that the person might be telling the truth."

"Really? You can't tell me? Okay. That's fine."

Horner sighed. He really didn't want to get into Bergstrom bad side but to reveal Kerrigan as his source of that information could trigger a reaction unfavorable to him. "Look I know you don't like being keep out of the loop but as of now I truly can't divulge the identity of that person who supplied us with that information. Not when Jim is still out there."

"We saw the news, Matt," Bergstrom countered. "We had his funeral. And now you're saying that Raynor comes back from the land of the dead? You know Mengsk always wanted him dead. He won't have it any other way! What makes you think that this person was telling you the truth? Don't you think that this could be a trap to get you near enough to the Dominion so that they could easily catch you?"

"Whether or not it's a trap we still need to ascertain Jim's fate, Lars," replied Horner calmly. "If he's truly dead, then all we need to do is simply get on with our lives and do the best of what we do. If he in fact is still alive, we can't leave him to rot in some Dominion's jail. That is why I need your help."

Bergstrom sighed. "Alright. I understand. The truth is I too want Jim to come back. So what do you need?"

"We need something that will enable us to infiltrate the Dominion Deep Security Network. If Jim is indeed still alive, his data would be in it somewhere."

"Hacking the Dominion Security Network will prove difficult," said Bergstrom. Valerian who stood beside Horner raised his eye brows. "Only one person was able achieve that feat. Colonel Orlan."

Horner smiled. "And you should give thanks to your maker Lars, because we in fact do have him."

* * *

_**Planet Moria orbital platform, five hours later…**_

The Raiders shuttle landed right in front of Bergstrom who had been accompanied by various marines clad in full armor. The shuttle's ramp came down later to reveal Horner, Valerian, Nova, few marines and most importantly, Orlan.

Orlan threw a fit when he got a whiff that they will be going to Moria. "Are you crazy?! Bringing those-, those Kel-Morian into this! Do you know what they'll do to me?!" He shouted at Horner when the commander informed him of the new arrangements.

"You'll suffer a much more terrible fate by our hands if you don't give the kind of cooperation we expected," sneered Horner.

Horner knew on why Orlan wasn't keen enough to meet the Kel-Morian. Within a short period of time after the Kel-Morian Combine was first established, they became the Confederacy's main competitor within the mining industry. There had been a lot of bloody clashes happened between the two factions over their claims on potential mining operations throughout the Koprulu Sector. Orlan had played a huge role behind the scene, hacking into the Kel-Morian data network and stealing every valuable data usable by the Confederacy in their fight to undermine the Kel-Morian. Orlan's work and the fact that the Confederacy had the upper edge in those fights. At one time, the Kel-Morian was pushed to the corner with the Confederacy coming in each and every way. Orlan's finest moment came when the Confederacy was assaulting Sonyan, one of the fringe worlds riddled with minerals. The Confederacy was fighting over the planet with Kel-Morian Combine and its associate mining groups for more than two years since the Confederacy made a landfall on that planet. Their big break came when Orlan managed to dig the information that General Mah-Sakai was on that planet himself, personally overseeing the fight the Kel-Morian had with the Confederacy. While Acturus Mengsk, who was a captain of the Confederate Marine Corps at that time, lead an assault on a Kel-Morian mine somewhere within the Turanga Canyon, the Confederacy attacked the location where General Mah-Sakai's headquarters was. The general was heavily wounded in the attack but he somehow managed to flee. However, Mah-Sakai's brother wasn't lucky. He was killed in the attack. A mole within the Confederacy later on exposed to the Kel-Morian not only Orlan's role in the attack but also everything he did that had cost the Kel-Morian heavily. Enraged by this information, Mah-Sakai put a large bounty on Orlan's head. Orlan then when into hiding. When the Dominion was established, Mengsk offered Orlan protection and a place within the Dominion administration and use his talent to train a new generation of Ghost Operatives who's not only skillful in combat and infiltration but also in terminal hacking. Nova was Orlan's finest student.

"Bah! Your hands, their hands! What's the different! You want to work with Kel-Morian, then fine! I don't care! Just keep me out of this-."

Orlan couldn't finish his sentences when all of a sudden an invisible force lifted him up from his bed and threw him towards the opposite wall. Orlan lay on the floor, moaning in pain. His forehead was bleeding. All eyes quickly turned towards Nova, who was staring at Orlan. Her face was curiously blank, totally devoid of any emotions. But Horner knew all too well that appearance can be deceiving. Anger was burning inside Nova. She will kill Orlan if she was given the chance.

"Nova!"

Nova quickly came out of her reverie when she heard Horner's voice. She turned to look at Horner who was shaking his head. Knowing that Horner didn't approve of what she had done, she apologized. "I lost control of my powers momentarily," she reasoned.

Horner knew she was simply making up that excuses. "We need him alive, Nova. For this once, control your feelings!"

Nova simply shrugged.

Horner then ordered his escort to bring Orlan towards the infirmary to be patched up and had his health checked. Orlan was held inside the infirmary until the fleet arrived at Moria.

* * *

Bergstrom hugged Horner as he met the commander on the shuttle platform. His eyes then travel towards Orlan who was standing behind Horner. Nova flanked Orlan on the right and Valerian on the left. The Raiders escorts stood behind.

"So this is the man whom the chairman had put a bounty so huge that a person could be rich many lifetimes over. It's a miracle that you were still walking all these years," said Bergstrom. Orlan simply kept quiet.

"Lars, I hope you still adorn to our arrangement. Orlan must not be touched until we get what we wanted," said Horner.

"Oh don't worry about that, Matt," replied Bergstrom. "They still didn't know Orlan is here though I have to say I'm really tempted to handover this snake to Mah-Sakai. Can you really trust this man, Matt? For all I know he could alert the Dominion while doing his job."

Horner smiled. "And that is why he will be accompanied by Nova."

Bergstrom eyebrow quirked upward. "That Ghost Operative? What does she know aside from shooting and killing?"

Nova hissed when she heard what Bergstrom had said.

Horner quickly put his hand on Nova's shoulder and signaled her to calm down. "She knows more than that, Lars. She's a telepath, remember? And an excellent terminal hacker to boot."

"I see," replied Bergstrom, finally understood what Horner was planning. "Alright then. Follow me."

Fronted by Bergstrom, the group walked towards a building situated a couple of blocks away from the shuttle platform. Upon arriving, Bergstrom signaled them to stop. He then went towards a computer terminal situated not far away from where they were standing. He began to press a few buttons and peered into what must be a retinal scanner. Moments later, the huge door in front of them opened to reveal a long corridor. Bergstrom beckoned them to follow him. Once they reached at the end of the corridor, Bergstrom repeated the same procedure as before. Moments later, they found themselves inside a huge room. Rows of computer servers lined up the wall and at the center of the room was a computer terminal. Horner let out a low whistle as he marveled at the scenery.

Bergstrom smiled. "If this impressed you Matt, you should see what we have on the planet side. Yeah I know the Dominion had much better equipment than us," said Bergstrom as he glared at Valerian.

Valerian put up both his hands. "I didn't say anything."

"Right. Okay I guess we better get to work then." Turning towards Horner, he continued,"Now these computer servers had been linked to our deep space transmitter. We're not allowed to do that actually but just this once I will turn a blind eye towards the protocol so you'll understand that the connection would be momentarily, just enough for you to get what you are seeking. The transmitter will allow you to wirelessly penetrate the Dominion network from here. I should warn you that hacking our planet side server are strictly prohibited. It's not worth risking my neck for you guys so don't try. Got it?"

"We got it, Lars," replied Horner. Turning towards Nova, Horner said, "I'll leave you with Orlan, Nova. You'll know what to do. Just don't be too harsh on him. I'm sure you'll understand that this is critical. We need him in right state of mind."

Nova nodded. "I understand, commander."

"Good. I'll leave several guards for your protection. Lars, there's something I need to show you."

Bergstrom nodded and beckoned Horner to follow him out of the server room.

* * *

Nova's eyes followed Bergstrom and Horner until they disappeared from the server room. Just as the door closed, she whipped out her pistol and pointed it straight towards Orlan forehead. The marines whom Horner assigned to guard them quickly pointed their gun towards Nova. Nova simply ignored them.

Orlan meanwhile nearly jumped out of his chair as Nova's action took him by surprise. "What are you doing? Haven't you heard what your superior had said?"

"I heard him loud and clear, Orlan."

"Then why is your gun pointed to my face?"

"Just making a point."

"You can do that without using your gun!"

"I don't need the gun to kill you, Orlan. One simple thought and that little grey matter inside your thick skull would explode into a pile of goo. Now I want you to take seriously of what I'm going to say so shut up and listen. I know you'll have every opportunity to alert the Dominion while you're hacking their network so I won't have any of it. Are we clear on that?"

Orlan quickly nodded. He knew Nova enough not to mess around with her.

"Good. Now I want you to be a good boy and do what you're supposed to do. If you succeed, the Raiders might be able to come up with something as a payment for your hard work. Screw up anything and I promise you, death will be the least of your worries." Nova's eyes flashed as she looked deeply into Orlan's.

"It won't be that easy, Nova. You know how difficult it is to penetrate that network's firewall and undo every encryption they put in. This endeavor has a large chance to fail!"

Nova then slowly bends towards Orlan until her face was just inches against his. "I. Don't. Care. Every failure, whether it is your doing or not, will be place squarely on top of your head. Fail this Orlan, and I will make sure that you will suffer the most horrific death imaginable. Fail this and your scream will be heard throughout the universe and beyond."

Orlan could swear that he saw Nova's eyes were glowing. He then quickly got to work while Nova stood behind him, watching his every move.

* * *

_**Meanwhile at a meeting room within the data center building…**_

Bergstrom stood rooted to the floor as he watched and heard every word Mengsk had uttered.

"_**The Queen of Blades! "**_

"_**I knew you'll return to your true form. A monster!"**_

"_**Now, you'll do exactly as I tell you if you care at all about Jim Raynor." **_

"_**Yes, he's alive so you'll keep your swarm away from Korhal and away from me, or he dies."**_

"_**That man sacrificed everything to give you back your humanity and you throw it away."**_

"_**Oh he must be disgusted by you."**_

"_**Why, he'll be the first in line to kill you."**_

Silence reeled in as Mengsk's holographic image dissipated. For a few minutes, nobody had anything to say.

"Shocking isn't it?" asked Horner to Bergstrom moments later. "If you need any proof, there it is."

"So Kerrigan was the one who relayed that information to you together with this communicator and she's now the Queen of Blades once again," said Bergstrom as he put the final pieces of the puzzle together.

Horner nodded. "Yeah and this is why I couldn't tell you who's the informer before. I know you won't believe what I would have to say back then. I need you to see it for yourself."

"Well, this is certainly mind fucking alright. Jim comes back from the dead and Mengsk has him. Kerrigan turning back into the Queen of Blades. What else? The universe had gone topsy-turvy."

"Tell me about it," replied Horner. "But now's not the time to dwell on those matters. The important thing is Jim. We need to devise a rescue plan once we found him."

"You're right," agreed Bergstrom. "You can have this room as your temporary headquarters. Once Jim is found, we can get together and devise a plan on how to get him out. I gotta go now. Alert me if you need anything."

"Thanks Lars."

Bergstrom nodded and exited the room, leaving only Horner and Valerian in it.

"Do you have any plans for Orlan once all of this is over?" asked Valerian.

Horner shook his head. "No plans so far. But maybe we can let him go after he pays his due."

"You know there is a big chance that he might betray us."

"Once Jim returns to us it won't matter. He can do whatever he pleases. But for now, he needs to do exactly as we say."

* * *

_**Same location, two hours later…**_

A couple of hours had gone by and so far Orlan had found nothing. And for the last two hours, Horner had nothing to do but wait. He simply sat on the chair by the table and took a sip out of his coffee every now and then. He was bored.

Minutes later, the door into the meeting room opened. Valerian walked in. He stopped for a moment as he looked towards Horner. He saw the cup in Horner's hand. Thinking that he might need a cuppa, he proceeded towards the coffee maker situated at the end of the room.

"You looked bored," said Valerian as he poured the coffee into his cup.

"And you look weary," replied Horner.

Valerian walked over the table and sat on one of the available chairs. He took a sip and savored the taste that lingered. "It's been a while since I've tasted a properly brewed coffee. Those available on the battle cruisers taste like gunk coming out of a lawnmower's engine."

Horner chuckled. "You better get used to it. Don't you have your own set of drinks on your ship?"

"Fresh out even before Char."

"Well like I said, better get used to it."

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice, do I? Oh by the way, Kerrigan called."

"Yeah? What did she want?"

"Updates on Jim."

"Figures."

"She gave us one hour to find him."

"So what did you tell her?"

"I told her to piss off. I told her that she will have her update when we found him."

"And her reaction was?"

"Strangely, she relented."

Horner raised his eye brows. "That is strange but welcoming nevertheless. The last thing we need is to have someone like her breathing down our neck every now and then. One mistakes and things could get really dicey."

Valerian nodded in agreement.

It was at that moment when Nova suddenly barged into the room. She looked back and forth towards Horner and Valerian.

"Commander," she spoke. Excitement can be seen clearly on her face. "We found Jim!"

* * *

Horner and Valerian leapt out of their chair and sped towards the server room. However, just as the trio approached the server room's door, they heard multiple gunshots coming from within.

"What?" Nova said, wide eyed. She quickly barged in. Once inside, she saw Orlan was grabbing a marine from behind and pointed a gun onto the marine's face. The other two marines lied on the floor, apparently dead. From the look of it, both of them were shot on the head.

"Orlan!" Nova shouted.

"There's no need for you to shout, Nova! I'm not deaf! Now back away or he dies!"

"What's that?" said Valerian, pointing towards the computer screen used by Orlan. The word 'UPLOADING' and an IP address were displayed prominently on the screen.

Nova looked at the computer screen for a few moments before realizing what Orlan was doing. "He's alerting the Dominion!"

"You're such a snake, Orlan!" hissed Horner.

Orlan laughed. "You can call me whatever you want, commander but it won't change the fact that soon your Jim Raynor will be no more. Now all of you back away!" said Orlan as he began to make his way towards the exit with his hostage.

However at that point of time, Orlan at that time was too busy concentrating on what was happening in front of him that he totally oblivious of what was happening behind him. Without him knowing, a chair began to move slowly towards him. Without any warning, that chair suddenly leaped towards Orlan and it hit him on his head. Orlan cried in pain and dazed for a moment. The marine in his custody quickly took that chance. He quickly grabbed the gun Orlan was holding, pried it off his hand and throw that gun away. With one hand holding Orlan's neck and the other on the mercenary's back, he threw Orlan onto the floor and pinned him there.

The marine then turned to look at Horner. "What shall we do with him?"

Horner was about to open his mouth when the marine was thrown backwards.

Orlan sighed with relief before his eyes suddenly widen in terror. He then began to scream a blood curling scream. Blood was oozing out from his nose, eyes, mouth and eyes as he struggled against an invisible force. After a few minutes of screaming, Orlan began to cease struggling and lay motionless but not before his eyeballs exploded.

Horner, Valerian and the marines simply stood there and watched in shock. Slowly they turned their gaze towards Nova.

Nova simply stood there motionless. From the look on her face, it was clear to them that a bottomless rage was burning inside her.

"Nova?" said Horner.

Nova took a deep breath and tried very hard to calm herself down. Moments later, without looking at Horner, she said, "That will the fate of anyone who tried to harm the very person I truly cared for."

Horner simply stared at her. He was beginning to worry. For some unfathomable reason, Nova was beginning to show a lot of Kerrigan's traits throughout the period after they gathered Orlan and those traits worried him even more. To him, what Nova had demonstrated was simply a small representation of what Kerrigan would be able to do. Horner hated to think what Kerrigan's reaction would be if the rescue mission fails. Horner now realized that they were really walking on a really thin line. Raynor's life will determined the fate of everyone within the Koprulu Sector. He dies, everyone dies. But now was not the time to dwell on that matter.

"I understand but we need you to get to that terminal and stop that transmission before it's too late," said Horner while carefully putting his hand on Nova's shoulder, hoping that gesture would be enough to help calm her down. He made a mental note to have the Raiders medics run a scan on her, just to be safe.

"It's been taken care of, sir," replied Nova. "I pulled out the plug when Orlan was busy threatening both of you."

Sure enough, a 'TRANSMISSION FAILURE!" message was now displayed on the computer screen.

"How did you that?" asked Valerian.

"I'm a psionic, Prince Valerian. I can do things from afar."

"Right. I forgot about that. So the questions right now would be how much the Dominion knows about what we are trying to do and whether or not Orlan subsequently deleted all the information on Jim."

Nova walked towards the computer terminal and began typing. After a few moments, she looked back towards Valerian and Horner and said, "There's no knowing whether or not the Dominion received Orlan's transmission and he managed to delete all data on Jim."

"Damn it Orlan!" said Horner, crestfallen. "That's it. All the work we've done had gone to waste. Jim is still under the Dominion custody and we're getting nowhere."

"Commander," said Nova. "There is still hope. Orlan may have deleted all the data on Jim but I still remember what we had received. Jim is now held on Moros."

"Moros?" exclaimed Horner. "Is that some sort of a prison planet like the New Folsom?"

Nova shook her head. "No. It's a moving prison ship. It was design to keep extremely valuable prisoner like Jim out of any chance of being rescued but I know how to track it."

_**To be continued…**_

**A/n: If you guys notice the difference in the quality of writing, that's because this chapter wasn't beta read. I need to get this baby out before this weekend hence there won't be time to send it to beta read. To TehDarkTemplar, I will need your help for the next chapter. Chapter 15 will deal solely on the famous 'Believe in Me' scene. I'm planning to shed more light on that scene so if that scene tore you apart when playing HotS, wait till you read mine. As always, please read and review and I'll see you soon.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/n: Nope! Sorry this is not THE chapter 15 that I've promised you. I just want to tell you guys that I've made some changes to chapter 14 and I have '****Restored PPtC' to thank you.**

**Yeah I admit that part after Nova killed Orlan was a little bit odd. No! Make it really odd so that's where the changes were made. And yes Nova's behavior will be one of the issues that will be addressed later in future chapters.**


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